Here are 10 online meeting tools for you. Each has its own special features and is made for different types of users. This might help you choose the right one.

Read Also:  6 Tips Towards Not Having Pointless Meetings

1. Zoho Meeting

Zoho Meeting is a strong choice for online meetings. Many people think of Zoom first, but Zoho Meeting is also worth considering.

If you’re a freelancer, the free version has everything you might need. For larger companies, Zoho offers many useful features. Tools like Zoho CRM work well with Zoho Meeting. It also has file sharing, group chats, sharing apps, and can work with other third-party tools.

Use Zoho Meeting for Online Meetings

2. Airmeet

Airmeet is an online tool many use for virtual events. It’s simple to start, and they offer great help if needed. Airmeet is mainly for planned events, not just casual online chats.

Their free version can have 100 guests. Every plan has a social area where guests can chat before the event starts. They also offer polls, Q&A sessions, and even allow you to set up automatic tasks with Zapier.

Use Airmeet for Online Meetings

3. Google Meet

I really like Google Meet for online meetings. It’s simple: open it in a web browser, and you’re set. No need to download any apps. You can join meetings on your phone or even by calling in. It offers features to run online meetings or classes. Plus, you can record meetings and save them to your Google Drive.

You don’t need a Google account to join a meeting, but you need one to start your own. It’s free and has everything you might need on the move. Another neat feature is its Speech to Text. This means you can talk, and it will show subtitles. It’s not flawless, but it’s handy!

Use Google Meet for Online Meetings

4. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams offers many tools by Microsoft for companies with remote workers. It provides tools for project management, chatting, and more.

You can do many things in one spot. Write documents, set tasks, follow activities, and hold meetings. The free version lets you have a call with 100 people.

Use Microsoft Team for Online Meetings

5. Skype

Many people know Skype. It’s a simple tool for chatting, used for both fun and work. Many help desks use it to support their customers. But its standout feature is online meetings with up to 100 people.

Use Skype for Online Meetings

6. Facebook Messenger Rooms

Facebook Messenger Rooms might not be your first thought for online meetings, but it’s a good option. It quietly became a part of Facebook. It can host 50 people. Plus, you can set when it happens, decide who can join, and more.

Use Facebook Messenger Rooms for Online Meetings

7. GoToMeeting

GoToMeeting has been here before tools like Zoom and Google Meet became famous. It’s related to GoToWebinar, which many people use to hold webinars.

The webinar version might be a bit costly, but GoToMeeting is affordable at $12/month and can have 150 guests.

Use GoToMeeting for Online Meetings

8. FaceTime

If you use iOS or Mac, FaceTime is a handy tool for video calls. It’s perfect for talking with co-workers, family, or friends. Since it’s built into these devices, there’s no setup needed. Just use a phone number or iCloud email to begin.

Use FaceTime for Online Meetings

9. Cisco Webex

Cisco Webex is a unique tool from a trusted company. It’s easy to use and offers many of the features seen in tools like Zoom. But its standout feature is its built-in A.I. assistant. During meetings, you can give voice commands, and this A.I. will take notes, set reminders, and more.

Use Cisco Webex for Online Meetings

10. Zoom

Zoom is a widely-used online meeting tool, especially since many started working from home due to the pandemic. Schools, companies, and even families use it for group calls.

Zoom is user-friendly and offers a free version with many features. Users can change backgrounds, share their screens, use filters, and more.

Use Zoom for Online Meetings

Conclusion

I hope this list helps you pick the right tool. I prefer Google Meet personally, but at work, we mostly use Zoom. For our basic needs, any of these tools work. But if Google Meet had the fun backgrounds like Zoom, it would be amazing!

The post Top 10 Online Meeting and Conference Tools appeared first on Hongkiat.

Whether you’re a small startup or a large corporation, having the right project management software can make all the difference in keeping your team organized, productive, and connected. So, let’s dive in and discover the best project management software options for remote teams.

Overview:

1. Monday’s Project Management

Enhances team productivity, visibility, and accountability across departments, making it suitable for remote teams in various industries

Monday is a highly recommended option for managing projects, particularly for teams working in content, creative, software, manufacturing, and related industries. Having utilized it for nearly a year across two brands in the nutrition and food niche, I found it to be a dependable tool for enhancing team productivity, visibility, and accountability across departments.

While it may initially appear similar to ClickUp, Monday boasts a distinct set of features that cater to intermediate to advanced users. However, even novice users can quickly configure automation with its built-in automation capabilities.

For instance, you can easily automate task creation or assignment transfers when the status is changed from X to Y; its possibilities are endless.

One standout feature of Monday is its ability to mirror items across different boards, a functionality not commonly found in most project management tools. Regardless, I recommend giving Monday a try!

Manage Projects with Monday.com

2. PipeDrive

Offers ease of use and integration capabilities, allowing remote teams to track and visualize their customers’ journey seamlessly.

PipeDrive is primarily recognized as a sales management tool, serving as a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution that enables businesses to track and visualize their customers’ journey – from prospect to lead to customer and beyond. Nonetheless, many individuals also employ PipeDrive as a project management tool.

What makes Pipedrive an attractive option is its ease of use, along with its integration capabilities with other tools.

For instance, you can conveniently link your mailbox to PipeDrive, allowing you to engage in conversations within the CRM with individuals in your pipeline.

For context, I used PipeDrive for a US construction company and a UK design agency. Initially, I was under the impression that using it as a project management tool might not be the best of ideas, but the tool is so versatile that you can easily use it for managing your projects.

For example, it uses Pipelines and Stages as its main keywords. So you can use Pipeline for Project during Stage as the Status of your project. And yes, Lead is to Task. Easy, right?

Manage Projects with PipeDrive

3. ClickUp

Provides a versatile range of features, from task tracking to built-in ticketing systems, making it ideal for remote teams to stay organized.

I may be biased toward ClickUp when managing medium to large-scale (and ongoing) projects because I’ve been using it actively for three different startups and have referred it to several others. But I’ll do my best to be balanced in my views here.

ClickUp is a project management tool with a wide range of features; it comprises all of the features of typical project management tools in the market and features that are unique to them.

For example, if you are a small team – or just an individual with a lot of projects – using ClickUp will provide you with all of the things you need, from keeping track of tasks, deadlines, leads, and the like.

But here’s where ClickUp actually shines – it’s versatility. And here are some of the things you can do with it (at least what I’ve done with it) aside from adding lists and Kanban for tasks:

1. Workloads: Visually see everyone’s workload, assign work, and see if they are underutilized or overworked.
2. Customer support center: This is a built-in ticketing systems with features like Freshdesk or Zendesk etc.
3. Company Wiki: ClickUp’s built-in document feature, so you don’t have to use tools like Notion or Google Docs for note-taking purposes.
4. Goals and Milestones: a unique feature that allows you to set goals like they are folders, set the numbers, and see which goals are being hit, which ones need to be retargeted, and the like.

And of course, it also has a lot of automation recipes, and if you are an advanced user, you can boost its superpowers using Zapier or Integromat, too.

Manage Projects with ClickUp

4. Airtable

Combines the power of spreadsheets with project management, allowing remote teams to organize data and tasks in various views, including Kanban and Calendar.

If you are a huge fan of spreadsheets, then you need to give Airtable a shot. At first glance, it looks daunting, even for spreadsheet enthusiasts. It might even look like a database to some.

But in reality, it’s a powerful tool that can be used for project management, among other functions.

With Airtable, things can be built in the following views:

1. Kanban: Just drag and drop cards from one column to another.
2. Table: Like a regular spreadsheet, but with more features.
3. Calendar: perfect for teams who are always on tight schedules, like content creation teams.
4. Gallery: Focuseson the visuals, perfect for creative teams.

But where Airtable beats the rest of the tools is its power to calculate things. Like spreadsheets, if you are heavy on data, you can patch in your formula on the rows and columns, and you’ll get the numbers you need. You can even write your own scripts (if you’re familiar with JavaScript).

Integrating it with Zapier or Integromat will help make things easier, too, along with other apps like Slack, Gmail, and other tools that are crucial to remote teams.

Manage Projects with Airtable

5. Asana

Enables teams to set task dependencies and create new organizations quickly, ensuring smooth workflow and collaboration among remote members.

Asana is still one of my go-to project management tools for managing different clients. It is another powerful tool that any team can greatly benefit from, from content and web design and development to photography and eCommerce.

Using Asana is pretty straightforward – it has two main views: Board and List; and you can switch between the two. For the tasks that you create, you can set dependencies – if a task isn’t completed, the next dependent task can’t start – so it is easy to spot the bottleneck.

One of the reasons why I still use Asana is because you can literally create a new organization in just under 10 seconds, and you can create dozens upon dozens of organizations as you want for free and invite up to 15 free members too.

Manage Projects with Asana

6. Trello

Offers a clean and intuitive interface, allowing remote teams to manage tasks efficiently using cards and various views.

Trello is yet another straightforward project management tool that many people can’t leave behind, even if there are already newer tools with more robust features. And there’s a reason for that, of course!

Trello is perfect for people who want to increase team productivity. And the reason why this is the best feature of Trello is that it’s so…clean. There are no unnecessary features, no clunky features that will make you want to read the knowledge base and the like. It is very intuitive and simple, too.

Drag cards across different columns, or use the table view, update a task’s deadline by simply dragging it across the calendar — things like that are very well-thought-out; little things that can make your life easier.

There are other views that you can use within Trello, including Timeline, Table, Dashboard, and Calendar.

For most of its grandfathered users, back when it was just a Kanban, many of these users still use Trello for just the cards – including me!

Manage Projects with Trello

7. Toggl Plan

Combines aesthetic design with features like project planning and workload management, ensuring remote teams stay productive and on track.

Toggl Plan is a project management tool that captures the eyes. It has a very aesthetic feel to it, and to be honest, that is the one thing that many tools don’t have, which I think is a shame because having a good UI can help in being in the “flow”.

Toggl Plan focuses on these three main things.

1. Project Planning: This is where you can create tasks and drag them along the timeline, etc.
2. Workload Management: Since one of Toggl’s main products is time-tracking, it is natural to have a feature that tracks the workload of your team. In this case, I believe the combination of task management and time tracking plays well with the tool. You can easily see if someone is overworked or needs more tasks!
3. Task Management: Create, edit, assign tasks to your team members, and have each task time tracked.

Honestly, if you are a small remote team and looking for ways to fully utilize your team and make sure that you are paying them correctly, Toggle Plan is probably the best tool that you can use. Give it a shot with their free trial!

Manage Projects with Toggl Plan

8. Basecamp

Provides a simple interface with a tab for all activities, allowing remote teams to stay updated on who is working on what.

Basecamp is a classic project management tool, and I’ve added it to the list because of how widely it is being used even today. It’s a simple tool that teams working on software development, content creation, etc., can benefit from.

It also has a nifty tab for all activities within the organization, so you can know at a glance who is working on what.

One thing I like about Basecamp (and I am sure that many will agree with this) is that its pricing structure is straightforward. Unlike other tools that charge you per user, Basecamp allows you to pay a flat rate no matter how many users you have.

Manage Projects with Basecamp

9. activeCollab

Facilitates real-time updates and easy communication, allowing remote team leaders to keep contractors/clients informed.

ActiveCollab helps collaborators through its time-saving and easy-to-use features. Project leaders can set milestones for the team, add team members, assign tasks, and get notified via e-mail for updates on the project. Also, when replying or posting a comment, you don’t need actually to log in to the system. You can reply and post comments via e-mail.

With ActiveCollab, team leaders can provide real-time updates to their contractors/clients by giving them access to the system. I’ve personally used this, and I’ve seen that it is pretty flexible in giving users permission on what features to use.

Manage Projects with activeCollab

10. Assembla

Uses a ticketing system to assign tasks, ensuring clear communication and task distribution among remote team members.

Assembla has a ticketing system where teams in remote places are given tasks via tickets. I’ve used this, and personally, I find it a little confusing at first, but after spending some time with it, I get exactly how it works. It is like one of those online forums where people talk about things; only here, the project leader is the one who controls most of the game.

There are built-in wikis to help new users navigate their way through, and Assembla encourages its users actually to read and follow instructions.

Manage Projects with Assembla

Bonus: Confluence

If you’re a wiki user, then Confluence will be easy for you to use. Although it is not your usual wiki, it still incorporates many similar features like content creation for all users, intelligent search, discussion, and many more. File sharing is made via drag and drop.

Unlike other project management software, Confluence is more focused on documentation and information sharing. For big projects, proper documentation is definitely the key to a more organized execution of things.

Like WordPress, there are also several plugins that users can install for the system, each having its own purpose. And as people say, the best feature is its ability to integrate with Microsoft Office. That, in itself, says a lot.

Manage Projects with Confluence

Bonus: Kapost

Kapost is a publishing management software perfect for bloggers and writers in collaboration. It is a virtual newsroom where users can present a concept and have it approved by an editor. There are three types of users here, editors, contributors, and subscribers. Editors can approve, assign, and reject ideas to contributors.

Kapost also has a built-in feature for payments per post; although I haven’t tried it, I think it is a very cool feature, especially when working with a diverse team on an output-based payment.

The thing about Kapost is that it makes its users focus more on the concepts, increasing the quality of content. It’s like a real newsroom where people brainstorm together.

Manage Projects with Kapost

Bonus: Time Doctor

Time Doctor had me at dramatically reducing wasted time, as in the world we are living in now; time can make or break an entire company.

Its main features include optional screenshot monitoring for remote employees (which is a little invasive, in my opinion, but will do the job), automatic generation of daily reports, keeping track of what websites and applications are used, and many other features that track every possible action of a user on his computer. I must say, if you want to be strict with every penny you pay, Time Doctor is what you’re looking for.

Manage Projects with Time Doctor

To end…

I sincerely hope that my review of these tools I have personally used can help you in making a decision. One thing I am sure of is that if you pick any of these and just keep on using them, your productivity will shoot to the roof.

What I recommend is to take time, use all of these tools for a free trial, get a feel of how it works, discover the pros and cons for yourself, and then finally make a decision. Decide on one with the intention of using it for several years to come.

The post 10 Best Project Management Software for Remote Teams appeared first on Hongkiat.

This article is for decision makers who want to streamline and optimize their processes. If you’re here, most likely, you’ll benefit from either of these two.

To give you a basic example of what you can do with both platforms… Imagine receiving email inquiries from potential clients. And for all of the emails that you get, you or your assistant have to copy their information to an external platform like Google Sheets or project management tools like ClickUp, Asana, etc..

Now, imagine if you receive hundreds to thousands of these emails monthly. If copying their information and saving it elsewhere takes an average of 1 minute each time, then you are looking at hundreds to thousands of minutes lost per month.

But with Integromat or Zapier, you can fully remove the human in this process. It can simply go from email straight to your CRM or project management tool – without human intervention.

What are the key differences between the two?

Price Differences: Integromat vs. Zapier

Before we delve deeper into the key differences between the two automation platforms, we should first take a look at their pricing because it will shape a lot of your decision-making.

At a glance at the table below, Zapier seems like it’s the more expensive choice. Integromat’s Free plan has 1,000 operations/month, while Zapier’s free plan only has 100 free tasks/month. Remember, tasks and operations have practically the same meaning here, just different terminologies used. Then, when you look at the Starter plan of Zapier, it’s only at 750 tasks per month, while Integromat’s Free plan is still ahead by 250 tasks or operations.

To take things a bit further, Integromat’s most expensive plan is only $299/month at 800,000 operations/month, while Zapier’s is at $599 at only 100,000 tasks/month.

Should that dissuade you from choosing Zapier? Not quite.

Zapier

• $0 – Free with 100 tasks/month.
• $19.99 – Starter plan with 750 tasks/month.
• $49.00 – Professional plan with 2,000 tasks/month.
• $299.00 – Team plan with 50,000 tasks/month.
• $599 – Company plan with 100,000 tasks/month.

See Zapier’s Pricing Plans plus all features included.

Integromat

• $0 – Free with 1,000 operations/month.
• $9 – Basic with 10,000 operations/month.
• $29 – Standard with 40,000 operations/month.
• $99 – Business with 150,000 operations/month.
• $299 – Platinum plan with 800,000 operations/month.
• Custom plan is available if you need more than 800,000 operations/month and 220+ GB data transfer.

See Integromat’s Pricing Plans and features.

As you can see, there’s a huge difference between the two regarding pricing. But this shouldn’t be the only criterion. Depending on your needs and skill set, you’ll probably want one over the other.

Let’s dissect them below.

Custom Coding

Zapier wins over Integromat in terms of running scripts. If you would like to use Python or JavaScript to execute codes, then using Zapier is a clear choice since it has built-in support. Integromat doesn’t have this yet, although people have requested it for a couple of years now.

One workaround for Integromat is by using Google Cloud Functions to execute Python scripts.

Editing Steps

One thing I don’t like about Zapier is that if you have 10 steps in a Zap, and if you’d like to remove or change the 5th step, there is no way to just remove or change that step as it is. You have to remove everything before it.

Meanwhile, with Integromat, you can easily change any module/step wherever they are and just adjust the data accordingly.

Complexity

In terms of the complexity of the automation you can build, Integromat clearly is the winner. Although a huge limiting factor is running scripts, you can still build a really complex workflow if you don’t need that.

For example, with Zapier you can build conditional pathways called Paths. If X is equal to 1, then use Path A. If X is equal to 2, then use Path B. Right now, it’s only limited to 5 Paths.

This limitation does not exist on Integromat. You can literally create dozens upon dozens of different paths or conditions.

If that’s not clear enough, let me give you an example.

Suppose you want to automatically sort leads based on your questionnaire with the following fields:

• City – Osaka, New York, London, Rome, Manila, Brasilia.
• Gender – Male, Female.
• Education Level – High School, Bachelor, Master, PhD.
• Plan – Plan A, Plan B, Plan C.

With the fields and possible answers above, if you are using Zapier and if your main sorting key is City, you can only have 5 main sorting Paths. And inside those sorting paths is another set of 5 Paths you can use. So in this case, it will look like this:

So there’s no more Path left for Brasilia. In this case, a workaround is to use Path E this way:

But if you do it on Integromat, it will look like this:

As you can see, you can create more than five different paths with different filters each. And in the example above, it’s just 6, but you can add a lot…honestly, I stopped adding more after 30.

So, that said, can you imagine the possibilities you can do with this much freedom?

Third-party Integration

I am torn between Zapier and Integromat when it comes to the available integrations and what options there are for the available modules.

For example, using ClickUp, on Zapier you can create a Space via a Template, but if you use Integromat, that option is not available.

I can list a couple of applications available in both that aren’t in the other but that will take time. But the great thing is, you can actually use webhooks or connect directly to the application’s API. You’re probably not in luck if the application you want to connect to doesn’t have a public API to connect to, though.

So before choosing between Zapier and Integromat, make sure to check if they have an API, Webhooks, or at least if they are available on Zapier and/or Integromat.

Uptime

In the past 30 days as of writing this, Zapier had a perfect score of 100% uptime, meanwhile Integromat had an outage for about 60 minutes before it was resolved. So, in terms of reliability, I would have to give the points to Zapier.

• See Integormat’s Uptime
• See Zapier’s Uptime

Customer Service

Based on my experience for both, they usually have a response time of less than 24 hours. However, I must admit that I’m a fan of Zapier’s customer service especially when it comes to scenarios that I am having trouble with.

For example, if I simply can’t find the possible logic to do something, Zapier’s customer service will usually reply with the actual solution and even recommend some more. Meanwhile, my experience with Integromat is like that too, but not as detailed with Zapier.

Pros, Cons, and Final Thoughts

Zapier Pros

Zapier Cons

Integromat Pros

Integromat Cons

As you can probably imagine, both Zapier and Integromat have their own pros and cons that can either make or break the deal, so I cannot exactly recommend one over the other until I know what your needs are. They are great tools that I use almost daily for different clients in setting up and optimizing systems, so I can’t tell you which is my favorite — I use both of them equally.

But to give you an idea, if the workflow you are building is task-intensive and you are on a limited budget, then Integromat is the way to go. But if you have the budget for it and the apps you need to integrate aren’t on Integromat, then go with Zapier.

The post Integromat vs. Zapier: Features, Prices, Pros & Cons (2023) appeared first on Hongkiat.

VPNs are generally not expensive, but they can still add to your annual expenses. But thankfully, there are some VPNs out there that you can use for free. Whether you want to try it out before buying/subscribing or merely using it without paying, here’s a list of free VPN providers you might want to check out.

PrivadoVPN

PrivadoVPN, like other VPNs, helps users to keep their anonymity and bypass censorship for unregulated access to all the contents that they seek.

Regarding security, they are generous because they give the same level of security for both free and premium versions like IP masking, point-to-point encryption, and so on. But of course, the free version has its limits because it only has 12 global servers for the free version.

PrivadoVPN is available on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS. You can also get their service on other devices by following their step-by-step instructions.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use PrivadoVPN for Free

ProtonVPN

Some VPNs offer free services but what most users don’t know is that they sell your information to advertising companies to profit off of your device. ProtonVPN doesn’t do that, while they do have a paid version of their service, there’s no catch for free users, your browsing experience will be safe and worry-free.

Moreover, ProtonVPN has no cap limit on your data usage compared to most VPNs out there that have a daily or monthly data usage limit. But it’s not all positive, here are the pros and cons of ProtonVPN.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use ProtonVPN for Free

Windscribe

Another popular VPN that helps protect your privacy, grants access to blocked content in your country, and can even block ads. It is available as an application and has a web browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Opera.

Windscribe gives you a 10 GB data allowance per month, which isn’t much if you’d think about it, but you have the option to use it only when browsing while doing other stuff online like video calls without consuming your monthly data allowance. They also offer additional data allowance through referrals, tweets about Windscribe, and simply visiting their official Subreddit.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Windscribe VPN for Free

AtlasVPN

Atlas VPN lets you browse the internet without the risk of threats and privacy concerns. It routes your traffic through an encrypted tunnel and masks your IP address so you can easily bypass geo-restrictions.

To uphold user privacy, Atlas VPN follows a strict no-logs policy so none of your online activity is tracked by the VPN or anyone else. Moreover, it supports many popular streaming services and offers high-speed streaming through streaming-optimized servers.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use AtlasVPN for Free

Hotspot Shield

This VPN also has a strict “no logs” policy. This means that your personal information is not recorded or collected by their system. They also use military-grade protection, so rest assured that you will remain anonymous and protected from viruses, and cyber-attacks.

The free version of this VPN gives you an allowance of 500 MB of data per day, which is quite generous compared to other free VPNs. Here are the pros and cons.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Hotspot Shield VPN for Free

TunnelBear

Similar to other VPNs, TunnerBear encrypts your device’s incoming and outgoing data, protecting your online privacy and allowing you to access global content that isn’t available in your county. TunnelBear also took a different approach by providing easy-to-use features helping users to access and switch between servers with ease. Pros and cons of using TunnelBear are:

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use TunnelBear VPN for Free

Hide.me

This is one of the best free VPNs out there today; although there will be limits for free users, the overall service that it can provide without you paying a penny is really good. They stated that the free service that they offer is their way of reinstating that Internet Privacy is a basic human right and that they don’t compromise the logs and security features for free users. Instead, they give additional benefits to their premium users.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Hide.me VPN for Free

Psiphon

It is a circumvention tool that makes use of VPN, SSH, and HTTP Proxy technology, allowing you to bypass securities and restrictions to gain access to videos and other contents currently blocked or censored in your campus, corporation, or country. Browse freely using public wifi without any worries and give you the freedom that you deserve.

This VPN is not a privacy tool, though, and they are transparent about it, stating that it should not be considered an online security tool.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Psiphon VPN for Free

FinchVPN

This VPN also has a free version that you can make use of. It allows you to use unsecured public WiFi with no worries, encrypts all your information to protect your private information, and unblocks all contents that are unavailable in your region, area, or country. Like other VPNs, it can also improve your connection speed when surfing or browsing.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use FinchVPN for Free

Zenmate

Zenmate is a premium VPN that offers a free VPN browser extension that is available for Chrome, Firefox, and edge. You would have to buy the premium version to use it on mobile. It uses strong encryption that hides your real IP address and it grants you access to restricted websites and contents. It even works with Netflix and supports torrenting.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Zenmate VPN for Free

SecurityKISS

The word “KISS” on SecurityKISS means “Keep it smart and simple,” as they aimed to create a trusted VPN that is secure and can be used with ease. Another free VPN that offers security and access to banned sites and content. Your privacy is well protected using encryptions to hide your identity. It also works with all platforms such as Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, Linux, and routers. It can also unblock Netflix and allows torrenting and downloads.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use SecurityKISS VPN for Free

Hideman VPN

A VPN that offers decent free features just like other VPNs. It works on all platforms such as desktop, Android, iOS, and is also available as a browser extension. It uses strong encryption as well to hide your identity and you can use any site online without being tracked and free from content limits. Though the free app itself does have limitations. Below are the pros and cons.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Hideman VPN for Free

Speedify

This VPN can provide a good connection service even for free users. Of course, it also has similar features mentioned above like good security and encrypted online identity that helps you stay anonymous no matter what site or platform you visit. It can switch from WiFi to mobile data without interrupting your videos or downloads. Speedify runs in the background and encrypts data transmitted through all your apps, making sure that you are safe and protected from whatever you’re doing. Overall a great VPN.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Speedify VBPN for Free

Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection

It is said that Kaspersky VPN was rated as the fastest VPN in the world in 2019 and 2020. Even recent calculations and tests show that Kaspersky VPN can deliver good internet speed, at the same time having concrete security, and grants access to censored content. They have several locations across 18 countries, and you can download Kaspersky VPN on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.

For the free version, there are over 200 servers scattered in over 37 countries, so you have a lot to choose from.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Kaspersky VPN for Free

Bonus: Datho VPN-FineVPN

This VPN is unique and it caught my attention right away. They are a non-profit organization and they explained that they put no specific limit on the speed or traffic, and they don’t charge for their VPN client because they believe that the internet was built for the people and that people shouldn’t have to pay for security and privacy. They do, however, accept donations from their grateful clients. It works like any other available VPNs out there, might be even better!

They also have servers scattered across 20 countries like the US, Canada, England, The Netherlands, Japan, and Norway, just to name a few. Their VPN is available for Mac, Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10, Linux, Android, and iOS.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Datho VPN for Free

Bonus: Avira Phantom VPN

Avira is an award-winning antivirus protection that offers free VPN. It has military-grade encryption that secures your personal information. It is P2P compatible, reliable, and has good upload and download speed. You can download it for free and make use of its free VPN service.

What we like:

What we don’t like:

Use Avira Phantom VPN for Free

Summary

VPN or Virtual Private Network works like a mask that hides your IP address that holds Important information such as your location, zip code, and Internet Service Provider.

Once a hacker gets access to it, your activities online will then be traced and pieces of the puzzle will be put together to get your identity. Moreover, there will always be some restrictions involved when browsing through the Internet, especially if you’re in a country that has strict policies on the type of content you can view. Picking a VPN is not easy either. You must pick a proper VPN because some free VPN clients can leak or sell your information to third parties and advertisers to make a profit.

The post 15 Best Free VPN Providers appeared first on Hongkiat.

There are a lot of alternatives out there aside from MetaMask, which is probably the most popular wallet right now, but like everything else, it does not cover every need.

That said below are the following alternatives that you can use. Learn what they are, their features, and functions, and so on. At the end of the article, you’ll most likely end up using a couple, because different wallets have different perks and features.

What is MetaMask?

In case you’re not familiar with MetaMask, it’s a cryptocurrency wallet for Ethereum-based tokens. It allows users to interact with decentralized applications and exchanges. In it, you can buy, swap, and deposit tokens in and out of supported exchanges.

For example, if you have your coins in Crypto.com, you can send them to your MetaMask and vice versa. Why? Because there are a lot of applications and games that require users to register MetaMask before doing any kind of transaction.

It’s like literally connecting your wallet to an application or website so that website can use your money (with your permission, of course!).

So, let’s get started!

1. BlockWallet

BlockWallet is a self-custodial wallet that offers privacy and security features to help you stay safe on Web3. It has a friendly, intuitive user interface that makes it easy to use. With built-in swaps and bridges, you can explore the depths of what crypto has to offer in just a few clicks.

BlockWallet supports all EVM-compatible chains, including Ethereum and Polygon, and allows you to connect to any DApp or NFT marketplace. If you’re looking for additional security, BlockWallet also offers hardware wallet support for your Ledger, Trezor, and Keystone devices.

In case you ever run into any issues, BlockWallet has 24/7 customer support in their Telegram community. If you’re interested in trying out BlockWallet, head over to your Chrome Web Store to get started.

2. Trust Wallet

It is the official crypto wallet of Binance. Just like the other wallets that were previously mentioned, you can store, send, and receive cryptocurrencies and digital assets within this app.

It is fast and secure and even has features that allow you to play blockchain games and access the latest and popular DApps and DeFi platforms.

Trust Wallet supports Bitcoin and blockchains from the Ethereum ecosystem. It is available for Android and iOS mobile devices, but you can also access your wallet from your desktop through the mobile app.

There are several videos on YouTube that provide tutorials on how to do it.

3. MathWallet

MathWallet is pretty similar to the ones mentioned above. It is also a multi-chain and multi-platform crypto wallet that you can use for your assets and crypto.

It provides a ‘one-stop shop’ experience for users since it offers tons of features like allowing users to store and trade cryptocurrencies, access and manage token exchanges on DApps, and create multiple in-app wallets.

You can secure your assets with private keys, two-factor authentication, Mnemonic phrases, and so on, which makes it really secure. And it is available on mobile, desktop, browser extension, and even hardware.

4. WalletConnect

WalletConnect is a software that connects Decentralized Applications or DApps (i.e. Uniswap, OpenSea, etc.) to your Cryptocurrency Wallet. It’s also built to work on multiple blockchains such as Etherereum, Solana, Polkadot, and many more.

WalletConnect is also multi-chain, meaning, it can connect to multiple wallets and send transactions to several chains at the same time without needing to switch chains. It can also handle multiple sessions and it has a one-time pairing feature that allows you to do an infinite number of sessions by connecting only once.

And the best part? It can work on several platforms such as desktop apps, browser apps, mobile apps, and even gaming apps!

5. Coinbase Wallet

Coinbase Wallet is a Cryptocurrency wallet that lets you store your cryptos and NFTs all in one place. It supports all ERC20 tokens, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin, XRP, and many more.

Your private keys which represent ownership of your cryptos are stored within the device that you are using, compared to a centralized exchange like Coinbase.com. Do note that these two are not the same.

You can also use the Coinbase Wallet as a DApp browser and it is compatible with Google Chrome as a browser extension. You can get it on Google Play, Apple Store, and Chrome Web Store.

6. Fortmatic/Magic

Fortmatic is another cryptocurrency alternative wallet that is easy to use, like MetaMask, but without the need for a browser extension. Instead, it uses a phone number or email address to connect to Ethereum-based applications.

And since it does not need any specific app or browser extension, its accessibility is greater and more user-friendly especially for non-technical users compared to other crypto wallets out there. This allows users to use Formatic on multiple devices, including mobile.

Sean Li, the founder of Fortmatic, has rebranded it to Magic on May 29, 2020, to reinvent their identity, befitting their purpose, which is to make transactions much easier by reducing all the necessary steps that need to be done when authenticating or registering.

7. Portis

Portis is another simple and easy-to-use crypto wallet that can be connected to DApps with ease. Portis does not need any browser extension to work. Users can just use their email address and password to connect to DApps, which is quite similar to Magic. Thus, users can also utilize Portis on any desktop and mobile device.

It is also newbie-friendly, they can just set their account without familiarizing themselves with private keys, seed phrases, and other technical stuff.

This one is also multi-chain, so it supports other blockchain networks like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and EOS.

8. SafePal

SafePal on the other hand is a cryptocurrency wallet that provides both hardware and software wallet products that you can manage on the SafePal app. Unlike the other alternatives, having the option to utilize a hardware wallet gives it more security since it is stored on a separate USB stick style hardware and is, of course, cannot be breached by hackers. It is also the first hardware crypto wallet backed by Binance Labs.

SafePal also supports 20 blockchains, including Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, and even NFTs. This allows users to freely buy, store, and trade tokens. It is safe to say that it is one of the more advanced crypto wallet alternatives out there today.

9. Coin98

Coin98 was created as a single solution for utilizing cross-chain swaps, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), earning, staking, and yield farming. It is available on several platforms as a mobile app for both Android and iOS, web app, and browser extension.

It’s also a non-custodial wallet, meaning your private information is not collected by the app, only you have access to it. It also has additional safety features like faceID security, password protection, etc.

Coin98 supports over 25 blockchains including BTC, ETH, Binance Smart Chain, and many more. Thus, users have several options to explore and choose from. Moreover, Coin98 does all the work for users and gives them the benefit of getting the best price when swapping and with the lowest gas fees when doing transactions.

10. TokenPocket

TokenPocket is another multi-chain wallet that you can use to store, send and receive your cryptos without having to go somewhere else; very convenient to use. It supports all the leading cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Bitcoin, Cosmos, Binance, and many others.

It also has a web browser that allows you to interact with Dapps and trade your tokens in decentralized exchanges. You can even play blockchain games inside the wallet!

Your private keys and passwords are also safe and stored within your local device. And It’s available on desktops and mobile devices.

Bonus: Binance Chain Wallet

Basically, it is a crypto wallet for Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain, they sound the same but they’re not. They are both individual blockchain that’s designed to work alongside each other. Binance Chain Wallet now also supports Ethereum.

You can use it to store your cryptos and get access to thousands of Dapps and projects across several blockchains.

You can get Binance Chain Wallet as a web browser on Chrome and Firefox.

Conclusion

The competition within the blockchain today is more immense than ever, and its growth is still ongoing. Its vast ecosystem and concepts are far too complex for an ordinary user.

Blockchains are incapable of communicating with each other, so several cryptocurrency wallets popped up and they all have the same mission. That is to make buying, selling, and trading assets much easier for everyone.

The post 10 Best MetaMask Alternatives appeared first on Hongkiat.

In this review, we will take a closer look at Gemoo, a productivity app that helps its users record, save, organize, and share ideas in just a few clicks.

We will explore its three main apps: video recording, image capture, and document creation. We will also discuss the overall user experience, use cases, and the pros and cons of this versatile tool.

Why Use Productivity Apps like Gemoo?

The need for productivity apps like Gemoo arises from the ever-evolving work landscape, particularly with the growing prevalence of remote work.

As more and more people work from home or other locations outside of a traditional office setting, the importance of clear communication, and efficient workflows becomes increasingly apparent. With teams spread across different locations and time zones, asynchronous communication becomes vital for ensuring projects move forward smoothly.

The main audience for productivity apps like Gemoo includes remote workers, distributed teams, and organizations that require robust communication and those that thrive in asynchronous tools. These tools help bridge the gap created by physical distance and facilitate a seamless work experience for all involved.

By offering features such as video recording, image capture, and document creation and sharing, Gemoo enables users to present and exchange ideas, feedback, and updates in a clear, concise, and visually engaging manner.

Let’s see how it responds to the world’s needs with its features.

Let’s dive in.

Gemoo: Record, Upload, and Embed Videos

Gemoo’s video recording feature allows users to record their screen, webcam, and microphone with up to 4K resolution, providing high-quality visuals and audio for effective communication.

Real-time annotations, filters, and backgrounds make it easy to add context and polish to your recordings. You can also edit your video quickly once it’s uploaded, as well as comment on timestamps for feedback.

No time and resolution limitations mean you can create long or short recordings to suit your needs.

Gemoo also supports uploading local videos and embedding online videos from other platforms, ensuring all your video content is organized in one place.

Gemoo: Capture and Host Images

With Gemoo’s image capture functionality, you can take screenshots and add annotations, making it easy to provide visual feedback and highlight important information.

The image-beauty functions enable you to enhance your visuals for a polished and professional look.

Gemoo also supports taking screenshots based on a URL provided, streamlining the process of capturing web content.

Image hosting on Gemoo’s platform allows you to keep all your images in one visually organized cloud storage, ensuring easy access and management.

Gemoo: Create and Share Documents

Gemoo’s document creation app lets you create comprehensive documents with text, tables, audio, videos, and images, making it simple to convey complex information in a clear and organized manner.

Share your documents securely using a single link, with password protection available for sensitive files.

Gemoo’s User Interface

Easy to say, Gemoo’s user interface is very simple. But one of the things that I particularly like is when creating or uploading images, videos, and documents, you can use tabs to switch between files, which makes it easy for creatives and project managers to access multiple files at once.

Honestly, there’s nothing much to explore because it gives you everything with just a glance, which is great.

Gemoo’s Use Cases and Applications

Gemoo can be used across various industries and professions, such as marketing, customer support, engineering, product management, design – if it can be done online, you’ll find a way to utilize Gemoo.

From planning and executing marketing campaigns to recording and reporting bugs in the software development process, Gemoo streamlines workflows and enhances communication.

Gemoo: Price, Pros and Cons

Gemoo’s Free plan offers 5GB of free storage, allowing users to upload up to 25 videos, with each up to 5 minutes. This provides a great opportunity for users to explore and benefit from Gemoo’s features without any financial commitment.

PROS

CONS

Gemoo’s LifeTime Deals

Gemoo is now preparing LifeTime Deals for everyone, so take advantage of your early bird offer to get Gemoo Pro, which allows you to create an unlimited number of videos, screenshots, and documents.

The Verdict

Gemoo is a powerful and comprehensive communication and workflow solution that meets the needs of modern professionals. Its three main apps – video recording, image capture, and document creation – provide a versatile platform for creating, organizing, and sharing various types of content. The multiple views for personalized organization, along with Gemoo Library, ensure that your content is easily accessible and well-structured.

With its wide range of applications across different industries, Gemoo has the potential to significantly improve communication and workflow efficiency for many professionals. The current 100% free pricing during the beta phase makes it an attractive choice for users looking to enhance their productivity without any financial commitment.

However, Gemoo does have some limitations, such as the limited content management options for content shared by others. Despite this drawback, the pros far outweigh the cons, and Gemoo is a valuable tool for anyone seeking to optimize their communication and workflow processes.

In conclusion, Gemoo is a versatile and powerful tool that can revolutionize the way we work and communicate. Its extensive features, user-friendly interface, and current free pricing make it an excellent choice for professionals across various fields. If you’re looking for a comprehensive solution to streamline your workflows and enhance your communication, it’s worth giving Gemoo a try.

Try out Gemoo

The post Gemoo: Comprehensive Communication Solution to Increase Hybrid-working Efficiency (Review) appeared first on Hongkiat.

For what, you ask? Just want to share!

But recording videos and editing are two different things, and a lot of times editing is…such a hassle to do especially when you don’t have the right tools for it. One platform that’s caught my attention lately is Video Candy, which is a free online video editor.

Honestly, I don’t want to pay for an Adobe Cloud subscription because that locks you in for one year, and you won’t be able to cancel unless you pay a penalty fee – no way!

So I started looking for a video editor that can do what I want, and mind you, my needs are quite simple, like trimming, converting formats, adding audio, adjusting its speed or even reversing the video. Literally, that’s all I need, but many video editors out there don’t even offer the last two without having to go to many lengths. Anyway, enough of my rant.

So, in this post, I will be reviewing the hype behind Video Candy if it’s just another run-of-the-mill video editor or something that you won’t be able to live without.

Let’s dive right in!

Online Video Editors: Benefits & Differences

But that being said, since video editing software like Adobe Premiere already exists, why reinvent the wheel?, why go online?, and what’s the catch?

Questions that are obvious to ask, but to clarify things further, here’s why I think online video editors take the cake.

Accessibility

Having an online editor means you can access it anywhere as long as you have an internet connection and a device that can run a web browser. That’s it.

No need to download and install software on your computer.

Ease-of-Use

Typically, and this can be positive and negative at the same time, online alternatives of software like Photoshop are very easy to use, intuitive, but with the risk of their higher-level functions not being present. But it works perfectly fine if you are going to use the basic to intermediate functions.

No Installation Required

As mentioned earlier, there’s no installation required, so you won’t have to worry about it slowing down your computer or if it’s compatible with your system.

Platform Independence

As a browser-based tool, online video editors like Video Candy is not restricted by operating systems. Whether you’re on Windows, Mac, or Linux systems, you won’t run into compatibility issues. You just need an internet connection and a browser, bam!

Cost-Effectiveness

As I mentioned above, subscribing to Adobe Cloud just to get Adobe Premiere or Adobe Rush will lock you in for 1 entire year.

You can choose to buy other software too, which can provide you with a lot of fancy features (that you may or may not use), but for lightweight solutions, I would recommend using free online video editors like Video Candy since many of them are 100% free or cost really cheap.

Video Candy’s Features

There’s a bunch of them – like 18 features in total – that can help you get the result you want. I’m going to focus on the most important ones, otherwise, we will be here all night.

Video Editor

Before delving in deep, Video Candy has presets that you can use to edit your videos depending on the platform you want to upload them on, but at the moment, it only supports TikTok and YouTube for video editing, but you can still adjust the size at your own preference.

Aside from that, you can edit MP4, MKV, and Webm. I haven’t explored other file types, but chances are they support the most popular ones, too.

Anyway, you can trim, crop, rotate, flip, add multiple videos and stitch them together, mute the original audio and add a new one, resize the video’s size, add transitions between scenes, adjust the speed, and the like.

The best part? No watermarks.

The next best part? It’s free.

By the way, you can also adjust your video’s speed.

I uploaded a 4K video that’s only about 12 seconds long, about 100mb in file size just to test it quickly. After exporting it, the quality loss is minimal, while it shrunk the file size to 10MB. Which is good for testing purposes or for uploading on TikTok or Instagram where you can expect your audience to have a small screen.

And once you’re done editing, you can continue your work using other tools.

Compress Video

As mentioned above, exporting your edited video will shrink its file size depending on your settings, but you also have the option to just compress your video without editing it.

I tried it on a 4K video that is 247MB in file size, and it shrunk to 3MB. Seems like there’s no way to adjust how compressed you want the video to be, because there’s an obvious loss of quality, but if your goal is for a quick demo, then this is perfect.

Crop Video

The crop tool in Video Candy is an essential feature that allows users to change the aspect ratio of their videos, either manually or by selecting from predefined video ratios.

This function can be used to remove unwanted elements from a video or to adjust the video dimensions for different platforms. The cropping tool is straightforward to use, and the final product can be exported in just a few clicks.

Resize Video

My favorite is the video resizing feature because of one special thing: Fit Size. It will ask you what you want to do with the space that will be affected by the resizing.

In my example above, I chose 9:16 for a TikTok/Instagram story, and I was given the option to choose Blurred Bars. You can also choose just black bars or no bars at all, in which case it will just cut off the rest of the video. I think it’s really neat.

Screen Recorder

Honestly, one of the most useful features Video Candy has, based on my opinion, is because I regularly use Loom, which costs me about $10 per month, but there’s no editing function as in-depth as Video Candy.

With Video Candy, I can record my screen, explain stuff on video, and edit it directly.

Add and Remove Music

Pretty straightforward – you can strip off the audio from your videos and replace them with new ones. Pretty neat!

Slideshow Maker

Video Candy also offers a slideshow maker that can transform your images into captivating video slideshows. You can add transitions and background music and customize the duration of each slide to create the perfect presentation or memory montage. You can also add videos in between, which I find neat!

Reverse Video

Believe it or not, a lot of video editors will ask you to do a lot of things before you can even reverse your video. No kidding. Maybe even 90% of smartphone apps out there don’t support this feature, which Video Candy does. As simple as that.

Rotate Video

If you’ve ever recorded a video with the wrong orientation, Video Candy’s rotate tool saves the day. You can easily rotate your videos to the correct orientation, ensuring your content looks polished and does not look weird.

Loop Video

You can loop your video twice, 3x, up to 10x. But if you loop it infinitely, it will output a GIF which is a very good feature to have.

Stop Motion Maker

Basically if you have a high FPS video, or any kind of video for that matter that has a single subject, I believe you would benefit from this feature where your video can be automatically converted into a stop-motion video. The way it works is it removes some frames, making the “stop motion” effect.

Video Converter

Per testing, you can convert your files to MKV, MP4, MP3 (yes), GIF, MOV, and Webm to MP4. Not a wide selection but these are the most common video formats.

Also, if you’re wondering why there’s MP3 there, some people really just want to take the audio from their video, so this is a great feature to have, like extracting just the audio.

Audio Converter

The audio converter also works pretty much the same, but for MP3, WAV, M4A, and OGG.

Video Candy’s Usability & Performance

Video Candy’s user interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, making it accessible to users with varying levels of experience in video editing.

The platform does not require registration or account creation, which means users can jump straight into editing their videos without any delays.

Moreover, Video Candy performs well when it comes to processing and exporting videos. Although the platform is browser-based, it provides a smooth editing experience, and the final output maintains a high level of quality.

Things I like:

1. It’s 100% free.
2. It supports 4K.
3. I’m yet to figure out if there’s a file size limit, but per testing, I tried to upload a 3GB video, and it didn’t result in any error, so neat!
4. A whole bunch of features for free. Can’t get over the free part.
5. It’s a very intuitive and simple tool to use; it’s too minimalistic in design to the point where I can’t really feature too many screenshots on this review – which is good!

Things I don’t like:

1. No user accounts – so if something happens to your browser, like if you reformat your machine or delete all of your history, cookies, and browser cache, your files might be lost forever, too (I actually didn’t try, but this is the logical conclusion to it).
2. As an extension to number 1, if you move to a different machine, you can’t access your files.
3. The video compression feature doesn’t let you adjust by how much you want to compress it, it just compresses it to the maximum, and it results in loss of quality too.

Conclusion

Overall, Video Candy is an impressive free online video editor that offers a comprehensive set of tools for users to create and edit high-quality videos. Its user-friendly interface, combined with its wide range of features, makes it an excellent choice for both casual and professional users.

While there may be some limitations, such as the lack of options for reducing GIF file sizes, the platform’s benefits far outweigh these minor drawbacks. If you’re looking for a versatile, easy-to-use video editor that won’t break the bank, Video Candy is an excellent option to consider.

Edit Videos Online with VideoCandy

The post Video Candy’s Free Online Video Editor (Review) appeared first on Hongkiat.

That said, I’ve been searching for a sturdy, lightweight. Compact tripod that’s easy to carry around, and the SANDMARC’s iPhone Tripod caught my eye because of several reasons. It was initially recommended to me, so I figured there must be something to it. 

Anyway, I decided to try it, and now I’m sharing my thoughts with you all. So, let’s dive into the review!

First Impressions – Unboxing

When the tripod arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by the neat packaging, which included a box and a tripod case. I received the Carbon Edition, and it looked really well-built right from the start. Quite sturdy I should say because adjusting the leg locks was a bit of a challenge at first, as they were tight, and I wasn’t sure which way to turn them, but this one is on me. However, after the initial setback, I managed to set it up properly and was pleasantly surprised.

By the way, unlike many boxed items you buy online, especially if they have rubber or metal or whatnot, this one did not smell bad or strong. I don’t know why I said that, but many of the “cheap” stuff I bought from Amazon or anywhere else online had a distinct fresh-from-the-factory kind of smell that I didn’t like, and my SANDMARC tripod didn’t have that, so it left an impression on me.

Moving on…

Design and Build Quality

The tripod’s compact design is one of its strongest points. Despite its small size, it can extend to a height of around 161cm, making it a versatile companion for both my iPhone and mirrorless camera.

However, due to its compactness and engineering, it takes a couple of minutes to set it up, especially if you want to achieve its full height. But once you get the hang of it, it becomes a breeze.

The Carbon Edition’s build quality is truly impressive. The carbon fiber material makes it both lightweight and sturdy, ensuring that it can withstand various shooting environments. I couldn’t go out this week because of spring rain, so I decided to just take photos of the tripod at home.

I did go out to try and wait for the drizzle to stop, but it didn’t. But one thing I could say is the trains were packed, but carrying this tripod inside a cramped train did not bother anyone at all. It is compact and lightweight to carry.

And in case you will ask, the material for the case is topnotch. I’m not an expert when it comes to textiles, but I can tell that it is of high quality.

Performance and Ease of Use

Once I overcame the initial challenge of setting up the tripod, I found it to be extremely user-friendly. The pro-level ball head allows for quick and seamless adjustments between portrait and landscape orientations, which is a game-changer for me – and I’m saying this as a hobbyist, not as a professional, just to remind you.

It also holds my iPhone SE2 and Sony a6400 securely without any wobbling, giving me confidence in its stability. For a while, I actually tried to put pressure on it to see if it would suddenly drop, but thankfully it withstood my stress testing.

Customer Reviews and Feedback

Of course, as with any other sane person who’s shopping online, I did my digging as well. I checked reviews from real people before deciding to give it a shot. The reviews were stellar, so here we are now.

Easy to say, I wasn’t the only one impressed by the SANDMARC iPhone Tripod. Many customers praised its build quality, versatility, and ease of use. They also appreciated the excellent customer service from the SANDMARCteam. I’m yet to actually test their customer service since I haven’t encountered any issues at all – which is a +1 point to them.

However, some users did mention the lack of clear instructions for setting up the tripod and adjusting the leg-locking system – if you’ll recall, I also mentioned this above, and it took me a few minutes to figure it out and find ease in adjusting the legs. But despite this minor drawback, the overall sentiment towards the product was overwhelmingly positive.

Compatibility and Accessories

An advantage of the iPhone Tripod is its compatibility with not only iPhones but also Android phones and DSLR/Mirrorless Cameras. This makes it a versatile choice for those who, like me, use multiple devices for photography.

The tripod comes with a ball head, Arca-Swiss Plate, and iPhone mount, providing you with everything you need to get started.

Pros and Cons

The tripod in itself has a really good quality. I tried pulling and bending it here and there just to stress test it, to see if it would become loose or start creaking, but it withstood all of that.

The overall design is sleek as well, perfect for the modern on-the-go traveler.

The weight is perfect at 2.28 lbs (1.03 kg), height can go as low as 15.35 inches (39 cm) and up to 63.4 inches (161.1 cm).

And talking about height, at its maximum, you would think that a slender-looking tripod would start to shake or waver a little, especially with the wind, and when carrying a 4kg+ load, but its stability is really good as far as I could tell.

Next point might be a pro or con, depending on how you would interpret it, but the locks and leg locks can be stiff sometimes – which tells me a couple of things: first is that it is pretty much stable, it won’t suddenly drop on me while my gear is attached to it, and second is it is a testament to its quality. However, this could also be interpreted as, as time goes by and as I keep on using it, it might start to naturally loosen – but this is just me thinking out loud. The grip is strong since it’s new, but how long will it last?

I will try to reach out to SANDMARC about that last concern and update you here when they have an answer.

The biggest and perhaps only negative thing I could say about it is, and I’ve mentioned it twice above already, the leg locks.

I didn’t know how to operate the leg locks at first. There are a total of 3 locks on each leg, so turning and twisting it around took me a while to figure out which directions they go. But once that’s all setup, everything is good.

And because of the nature of the leg locks, setting it up takes longer than usual – but hey, it shouldn’t matter if you’re setting up a tripod since it only means you will stay on one spot for a long time. ;)

Honestly, aside from that, all I can think of are the positives of having SANDMARC’s iPhone Tripod, Carbon Edition. I can see myself using this for several years to come.

Specs by Edition

Here’s a table for a quick comparison between the three variants they offer, in case you’d like to try one.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the SANDMARC iPhone Tripod has been a fantastic addition to my photography gear. Its compact design, lightweight build, and versatility make it an ideal choice for hobbyist photographers who are always on the go. Although the setup process can be a bit challenging initially, it’s worth the effort for the stability and ease of use it provides.

If you’re in the market for a tripod that can handle both mobile and DSLR/Mirrorless cameras, I highly recommend giving the SANDMARC’s iPhone Tripod a try. It’s a reliable companion that will level up your photography game and help you capture stunning shots in various environments.

The post SANDMARC’s iPhone Tripod for Hobbyist Photographer (Review) appeared first on Hongkiat.

To which you might respond with disgust or anger.

I mean, it’s not surprising. The advent of ready-made drag-and-drop website building platforms made creating websites so much easier, especially because there is little to no coding required. And as someone whose bread and butter is designing websites, you can’t help but feel sorry.

Personally, you wouldn’t want your job to be replaced with an easier way to do stuff, much like how horses were replaced by cars back in the day.

Frameworks and CMS are becoming more and more popular too. You have WordPress, Blogger, Drupa; you have Foundation, Bootstrap, and Skeleton; you also have Wix, SquareSpace and Weebly.

There is so much competition, and all of these services usually target casual clients offering them to just subscribe instead of looking for web designers.

The points I’ve built so far would certainly make you think, “OMG! these ready-made websites surely kill web design. The end is nigh!“

But what if it doesn’t? What if instead of killing web design, these ready-made websites are helping web design become more profitable? What if they are not cars replacing horses, but instead are the Ubers to our regular cabs?

Ready-made websites are friends, not foes

The point of these services, themes/templates, and frameworks is to make the task of creating websites easier. A beginner who is not attuned to how good websites are supposed to look like, may find it easy to use an online website-building service. And if that person finds it easy, what more could an experienced designer do?

Now, if you ask me, are ready-made websites killing the web design?

My answer would be a firm no.

Contrary to the popular belief, I think that ready-made websites are doing just the opposite, and the write-up that follows, I’m going to discuss just how.

There’s no need to reinvent the wheel

There is no substitute for creativity and originality; however, originality doesn’t always mean you create stuff from scratch every time. I think an intelligent designer can produce an original web design even if he uses a pre-made website template by cleverly customizing it to his client’s needs.

Faster turnaround = More money

In the field of web designing, there come certain times when you suddenly catch the favor of the goddess of good fortune. You may get as many projects in a single day as you might get in months. And all of a sudden, time becomes a precious commodity as it translates directly into profits.

At this point, the biggest advantage you can get from a ready-made website is faster turnaround time. Instead of hiring a helping hand or rejecting a few projects just because you want to create everything on your own, you can use pre-made websites to your advantage to get projects done more quickly.

Won’t it effect the quality of work, you ask? Well, it may lead to some extent, but then again, if you’re an astute designer, you would twist and turn a boring template into a highly customized design.

A visualization aid for uninspired clients

Ready-made websites provide good overall value to your clients because of their intuitive nature. Let’s say that you have a client who wants a website made but is dumb as a dishwasher when it comes to visualization. You discuss and offer him some prototypes, and he still can’t visualize the idea inside your head.

So what’s a good way to make him see what you see? Use templates.

By using templates, you can show how the design will most likely end up looking like. This means that you are saving yourself and your client a lot of time going through different lines of communication just to hit that right spot.

Does that mean anybody can do your job now?

Truly ready-made websites are straightforward to use, and anyone who has a computer can use them, does not mean anyone can be a web designer now?

The answer would be no.

Yeah, the actual work of putting elements and customizing them can be done by anyone, but there are still things that have strings attached to them – things that a professional web designer can only handle.

Limitations of ready-made websites & “kiddie” designers

In this case, I’m borrowing the word “kiddie” from the hacker terminology “script kiddie” – a hacker who only uses scripts made by others to wreak havoc on the internet, so technically they are just unskilled individuals who don’t have the knowledge to actually make things work outside the boundaries of the tools they are using.

1. Color scheme can’t be learned in one day

In web design, it is utterly crucial to choose the right color scheme that would work for both user experience as well as aesthetics. It’s a skill that takes years of experience and a natural eye for colors that complement each other.

This also includes colors that are hot and trending, and how they are used to make websites look appealing.

2. Fonts are what make websites subtly stand out

In addition, not everyone is adept at choosing the correct typography and fonts. I mean, look at all those birthday invitations you received in Comic freaking Sans. Disaster!

One does not simply use Times New Romans or Comic Sans on websites. A seasoned web designer knows the psychology behind each family of fonts when to use serif or sans serif, how to make headings and subheadings pop, how to make each paragraph more distinct, and the like.

3. Only experts know that it’s not just about the surface

Web designers also work behind the scenes to make each website they design work properly from the development point-of-view.

There are some back-end optimizations to take into account such as meta tags and descriptions, how to make each website search engine and social media optimized, and overall responsiveness are things only a person with years of experience in the field can do.

To sum it up

In conclusion, ready-made websites aren’t killing web design; instead, they are helping web designers and developers by making their work easier, more profitable, and more valuable to their clients.

As a web designer, you should not fret because you can’t be overtaken by ready-made websites yet. Yes, some businesses prefer easy-to-use and cheaper alternatives but nothing beats the flexibility, reliability, and originality of a website built by real professionals.

The post Are Ready-made Websites Killing Web Design? appeared first on Hongkiat.

However, Macs are not immune to malware and other online threats as people would have you believe. As Mac users continue to grow, so do the bad actors who develop malware and launch cyberattacks against the system.

It can be overwhelming to choose the right antivirus for your needs, especially for Mac if you’ve gone all this time without one. Among these options that you might want to consider strongly is CleanMyMac X, which has become a popular choice for Mac users recently due to its comprehensive features and ease of use.

But that aside, feel free to read on as we are featuring 5 Mac antivirus software available in the market which hopefully would help you make an informed decision.

But first…

Do You Really Need an Antivirus for Mac?

Mac users have a sense of security for quite some time because it was largely believed that Macs are invulnerable against malware, which was somewhat true because it wasn’t as popular as Windows systems so there wasn’t much incentive to spend time developing viruses and malware against it

This doesn’t take into account the tech and knowledge needed to make malware for Mac systems. That said, now that the market share of Mac systems has grown significantly, so does the threat of adware, trojans, ransomware, and even phishing scams.

That said, most antivirus software nowadays helps improve your system’s performance by removing junk files, duplicates, and other system-generated files that contribute to the degradation of its performance, so you should strongly consider having one in your system.

For instance, CleanMyMac X has various optimization tools that help speed up your Mac and free up storage space.

So to answer your question if you need an antivirus for your Mac, the answer is probably yes.

Now, let’s analyze this Mac antivirus software, starting with CleanMyMac X.

1. CleanMyMac X by MacPaw

As previously mentioned, CleanMyMac X is a popular antivirus for Mac devices since it offers a wide range of features to help maintain your system, as well as optimize it. Its antivirus module can and will help protect your Mac against malware, along with its other features.

Malware Removal

Its Malware Removal feature is designed to detect and remove malware from your Mac. It scans your system for known malware and at the same time uses a real-time database to detect new threats.

It is effective at detecting and removing malware to the point where it might be a bit too aggressive at times, especially with false positives. But that said, if real-time protection is important for you, you might have found your antivirus.

Live Monitor

Its Live Monitor feature monitors and keeps track of your Mac’s health in real-time. It runs in the background so it is non-intrusive and won’t affect your device’s performance at all.

It can provide you with information about your system’s CPU, memory usage, drive status, network connections, and battery life. It is designed to help you identify and troubleshoot issues before they become major problems. It also provides alerts in case your system is about to run out of disk space or has unusually high CPU usage.

Privacy

CleanMyMac X’s privacy module is a feature that helps protect your privacy by removing sensitive data from your Mac. This includes browsing history, chat logs, downloaded files, and other items that could compromise your privacy.

The privacy module scans your Mac for these items and lets you choose which ones you want to remove. It also has a secure shredder feature that ensures the files are deleted permanently and cannot be recovered.

Additionally, CleanMyMac X can scan and clean up your email attachments and other temporary files that may contain sensitive information. By using the privacy module, you can ensure that your personal information is kept safe and secure.

CleanMyMac X’s Price:

You can download CleanMyMac X for free, to give its features a try. To uncover all the features the app ships with, it will cost you $34.95/year for 1 Mac, $54.95/year for 2 Macs, or $79.95/year for 3 Macs.You can also purchase the app at a one-time fee of $89.95 (for 1 Mac).

Things we like:

Things we don’t like:

The verdict

Overall, if you are looking for an effective and user-friendly tool to optimize and protect your Mac, CleanMyMac X is definitely worth considering. Its comprehensive set of features and excellent performance make it a great choice for anyone looking to keep their Mac running smoothly and securely.

Additionally, CleanMyMac X offers a 7-day free trial to allow users to test the software before committing to a purchase.

Get CleanMyMac X for Mac

2. Intego Mac Internet Security X9

Intego Mac Internet Security X9 is an antivirus program designed specifically for Macs. It offers a range of features to keep your Mac safe from malware and other security threats. Here’s an in-depth look at Intego Mac Internet Security X9’s pros and cons, capabilities, interface, pricing, and verdict.

Capabilities

Intego Mac Internet Security X9 includes a range of features to keep your Mac safe. It offers real-time scanning, which means it scans your Mac for malware and viruses as soon as you download a file.

The software also includes a firewall, network protection, and parental controls, giving you a comprehensive security solution for your Mac.

Interface

Intego Mac Internet Security X9’s interface is simple and user-friendly. It’s easy to navigate, and the dashboard provides a clear overview of your Mac’s security status. Additionally, the software’s settings are easy to customize, so you can tailor the program to your specific needs.

Pros and Cons

One of the advantages of Intego Mac Internet Security X9 is that it offers real-time scanning, which means it’s constantly monitoring your Mac for viruses and malware. It also offers a firewall, network protection, and parental controls, making it a great option for families.

However, one of the drawbacks of Intego Mac Internet Security X9 is that it can be resource-intensive, which may cause your Mac to slow down. Additionally, some users have reported issues with false positives, meaning the software may flag legitimate files as malware.

Mac Internet Security X9’s Price:

Intego Mac Internet Security X9 is priced at $49.99 per year for one device, which is competitive with other antivirus software on the market. However, if you need to protect multiple devices, the price can quickly add up.

The verdict

Overall, Intego Mac Internet Security X9 is a solid antivirus program for Mac users. It offers a range of features to keep your Mac safe from malware and other security threats, and its user-friendly interface makes it easy to use.

However, it can be resource-intensive, and some users have reported issues with false positives. If you’re in the market for antivirus software for your Mac, Intego Mac Internet Security X9 is definitely worth considering.

Get Intego for Mac

3. Clario Mac Antivirus

Clario Mac Antivirus is a newcomer to the antivirus market, designed specifically for Mac users. In this review, we will examine Clario Antivirus and evaluate its pros and cons, capabilities, interface, pricing, and overall verdict.

Capabilities

Clario Antivirus offers comprehensive protection for your Mac, including malware detection, phishing protection, identity theft prevention, and online privacy features. The software’s malware detection capabilities are excellent, with a high detection rate and a low false positive rate.

Interface

It has an easy-to-use interface, with a sleek and modern design. The software’s dashboard provides an overview of your Mac’s security status, with clear indications of any potential issues. The navigation is intuitive, with clear labels and instructions.

Clario’s Price:

It is a bit expensive, with plans starting at $4.17/ month paid annually, which translates to $50/year for 3 devices, or $8.99 if paid monthly. The good thing is, this subscription covers both Mac and iOS, and Android devices.

Things we like:

Things we don’t like:

Verdict

Overall, Clario is a good alternative choice for Mac users who want comprehensive protection and privacy features. However, the software is a bit pricey, and some advanced features are missing. Nevertheless, the software’s ease of use and excellent customer support make it a top contender in the Mac antivirus market.

Get Clario Antivirus for Mac

4. Sophos Home Premium Antivirus

Sophos Home Premium Antivirus for Mac is a comprehensive security software that aims to protect your computer from various threats. Let’s take a closer look at its pros and cons, capabilities, interface, pricing, and verdict.

Capabilities

It offers real-time protection against various types of threats, including trojans, viruses, worms, bots, PUAs, ransomware, and more. It also comes with parental website filtering, remote management, privacy protection, and identity protection.

Interface

It has a straightforward interface that is easy to navigate. Users can easily access all the features from the main dashboard. The interface is user-friendly, and users can customize the settings according to their preferences.

Sophos’s Price:

Sophos Home Premium Antivirus for Mac offers a 30-day free trial, after which the pricing is $44.99/year, $74.99/2 years, and $104.99/3-year subscription. The pricing is slightly higher compared to other antivirus software in the market.

Things we like:

Things we don’t like:

Verdict

Sophos Home Premium Antivirus for Mac is a fully-featured security software that offers real-time protection against various types of threats. The advanced malware scan removes any traces of previous infections.

If you are willing to pay a premium for a comprehensive security solution, Sophos Home Premium Antivirus for Mac could be a great choice.

Get Sophos Home for Mac

5. F-Secure Total

F-Secure Total is an all-in-one cyber security package that offers antivirus, VPN, and password manager with 24/7 identity monitoring for all your devices. And maybe, for the casual user, all these features won’t be needed, but as a fully-featured antivirus software for Mac, F-Secure seems to have it all. But read on.

Capabilities

F-Secure Total can protect your Mac devices with its wide range of features, and when I say wide, I really mean wide. It is comprehensive enough to include features aside from acting as an antivirus, like browsing protection, parental controls, privacy protection, and it also provides a virtual location along with its VPN service that encrypts your connection to ensure your privacy while online.

It also has a password manager that stores your passwords and syncs them across devices in a secure manner. Additionally, the online identity theft monitoring feature will alert you if your personal information has been leaked online.

Interface

F-Secure Total has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate. It offers a dashboard that provides an overview of your device’s security status, and each feature is organized in a separate tab. The password manager allows you to easily store, manage, and access your passwords.

F-Secure Total’s Price:

F-Secure Total’s pricing is a bit on the higher end compared to other antivirus solutions in the market. It costs $59.99/year for 1 device, $69.99/year for 5 devices, and $75.99/year for 10 devices. However, the cost/device is driven down if you have multiple devices.

Things we like:

Things we don’t like:

Verdict

F-Secure Total is an excellent all-in-one cyber security package that provides comprehensive protection for all your devices. Its antivirus engine is highly effective, and its VPN service, password manager, and online identity monitoring features are valuable additions.

However, the pricing is a bit on the higher end compared to other antivirus solutions in the market. If you value comprehensive protection and are willing to pay a premium price, then F-Secure Total is a great option for you.

Get F-Secure Total for Mac

To End

In conclusion, the protection of your Mac and all of the personal data stored in it is important. The increasing threats online are just going to get worse, and having a reliable antivirus solution is becoming more important than ever.

I hope that with this post you can make an informed decision on which antivirus software will work best for you. I wouldn’t wait until it’s too late!

The post Top 5 Antivirus Software for Mac (2023) appeared first on Hongkiat.

While the app is primarily marketed as a video converter, as the name implies, its audio conversion feature is just as equally good.

In this post, we will take a closer look at its features, capabilities, and everything else that’s important.

Video converter, but also an audio converter?

You read that right. In fact, many full-featured video editors have this capability, although not their strong suit. But HitPaw Video Converter takes it to the next level.

Whether you want to convert MP3 to YouTube, or YouTube to MP3, Spotify music, Apple music, and the like, you can do that through this video converter.

That’s right. In fact, let’s delve into its features right now.

Its key features:

In the lead news, HitPaw Video Converter boasts 120x faster video conversion compared to other converters, which is amazing when you consider how much time and resources is usually spent when rendering HD files.

Anyway, here’s what the app is capable of:

• Batch video and audio conversion without losing quality.
• Download videos directly from over 10,000 websites (you read that right), including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and more.
• Convert Spotify, Apple Music, and others to MP3 files.
• In terms of editing, it comes with a AI vocal remover in case you only want to keep the music and remove the voice (if you’re into karaoke and a new song you liked pops up, you know what to do!)
• Noise (backgroudn noise) remover, done by AI.
• Video editor where you can cut, crop, compress, add effects and subtitles, etc.

On top of that, it can also convert videos to GIF, and convert image files to other file types like WebP, TIFF, BMP, HEIC, JPG, JPEG, and more.

Key features for audio

I already mentioned a few audio-related features above, but let’s take it a few notches further.

HitPaw Video Converter actually has a patent to convert Apple Music and Audible Books into other file formats. While this feature only works on Windows, this is a feature that is one-of-a-kind and you can’t probably find this elsewhere.

Apple Music Converter

If you’ve been using Apple Music exclusively, you know full well how limiting it can sometimes be because you can only play your music on Apple devices.

But what if you want to listen to your rightfully subscribed music on different devices or platforms?

The obvious answer to that is, well, you just have to use Spotify for that, right? But some music is exclusive to Apple Music only, so you can see the problem with that now.

Anyway, with HitPaw Video Converter, you can pull your Apple Music playlist and turn them into MP3, M4A, FLAC, WAV, and other file types while maintaining the original quality.

Spotify Music Converter

On another note, what if you’re on Spotify and you’d want to download your playlist so you can save it on another device that doesn’t run the app, or perhaps burn it into a CD so you can keep your music forever and ever? HitPaw Video Converter can absolutely help with that, too.

What makes this app a great music converter?

There are a few but big reasons, and honestly, until today I never considered the possibility that I’d like to actually take control of what I pay for.

For example, as mentioned above, the music I pay for on Spotify is just there. But at one point, when their license expires, it won’t be available for me to listen anymore. In which case, do I own it? Did the months or years of me paying for my subscription just disappear? Because as humans, we are creatures of habits, and we’ll keep on listening to the same old songs over and over again.

In which case, whether I’m using Spotify or Apple Music, I think at this moment, I’d like to preserve music that I truly love.

And this is where HitPaw Video Converter’s audio conversion stands out.

Another thing is, and I already mentioned above, HitPaw is just always on target and up-to-date with the current trends, especially if it would actually benefit their users. I am talking about their AI-powered features that make people’s lives easier.

Remove vocals from music? Done.

Remove background noise? Done.

Done by AI.

Pretty cool and straight-forward.

How to convert Spotify to MP3?

The process is quite straightforward.

First step is to head over to the Toolbox tab. Here you can see a lot of other features like a video/image compressor, an Instagram downloader (piqued your interest, didn’t it?), converting Videos to GIFs, and the like.

Click on Spotify Music Converter. Once you do, it will ask you for a Spotify track link. Simply add it and click “Analysis”. Before converting it, make sure to check out the settings below. You can convert to MP3, M4A, WAV. You can even change the directory it will be saved to.

Once all settings are good, click on “Convert All” and wait for a few seconds.

It’s as easy as that, really.

Converting Apple Music to MP3 is pretty much the same too. You’ll just need to have your iTunes on stand by and the entire process will work like magic.

Pricing

Honestly, I was using the trial version for this review and I forgot that it’s actually a paid application. But here you go!

• $19.95/month
• $39.95/year
• $79.95 for a lifetime subscription

All tier include all of the features, no features are locked depending on your subscription level, as I mentioned, I didn’t even realize I was on free trial.

Honestly, I’d just grab the lifetime subscription.

Download HitPaw Video Converter

To End

Overall, HitPaw Video Converter offers a fast and easy way to convert music files on Windows and Mac.

With its support for a wide range of audio file formats and powerful features such as lossless Apple Music conversion and AI-powered noise removal, HitPaw is a great choice for anyone looking to convert their music quickly and efficiently. Do I recommend it? Absolutely. It does the job flawlessly!

The post Converting Music on PC with HitPaw Video Converter (Review) appeared first on Hongkiat.

Whether you are a job seeker looking for new opportunities, a business owner monitoring your competition, or simply someone who wants to stay informed about changes to your favorite websites, Wachete has got you covered. With its advanced features, Wachete is the ideal solution for anyone looking to stay ahead of the game in today’s fast-paced online world.

With Wachete, you can select specific content on any website to monitor, or choose to monitor entire portals and their sub-pages. What’s more, it even works for password-protected pages, so you can keep track of changes to your own website or stay up-to-date with your favorite online stores and shopping platforms.

The best part? You can receive notifications of changes via email, Slack, Teams, or through the mobile app, so you can stay informed on the go. Whether you’re looking to buy the latest gadgets at the best price, track changes to your website, or stay informed about new job openings, Wachete is the perfect tool to help you stay ahead of the curve.

Wachete Features in a Nutshell

Comprehensive Monitoring

Wachete allows you to monitor entire websites or select specific content to keep track of changes, job offers, prices, and availability.

Support for Password-Protected Pages

Wachete even works for password-protected pages, giving you the ability to monitor changes to your own website or keep tabs on your favorite online stores and shopping platforms.

Notifications via Multiple Platforms

Get notified of changes via email, Slack, Teams, or through the mobile app, so you can stay informed on the go.

Proxy Servers

Wachete also offers the ability to monitor pages via a proxy, which provides an extra layer of protection from being blocked due to too many requests from a single IP. Another benefit of having this is if a website or page is blocked in your region, you can bypass it and still monitor the page you want to check by going through a proxy..

Email Summaries

Choose to receive daily or weekly email summaries to stay informed about changes to your monitored websites.

Saving Changes History

Wachete saves the history of changes for up to 12 months, so you can refer back to past changes and updates.

Monitoring Specific Parts of a Website

With Wachete, you can choose to monitor the entire website or just a specific part of it, giving you more control over what you want to keep track of.

Monitoring Dynamic Pages

Wachete is also capable of monitoring dynamic pages, especially those with elements that load new content on the fly. For example, a pricing table with a “click to see more” button that only displays additional content when an action is taken. Under normal circumstances, this is hidden or not loaded onto the page.

Downloadable Data

Data is available for download as an Excel file, so you can easily keep a record of changes and updates to your monitored websites.

Integrations with Third-Party Platforms

Wachete offers integrations with Zapier and other third-party partners, giving you, even more, control and flexibility over your monitoring activities.

Available on Multiple Platforms

Wachete is available on iOS, Android, and Windows, as well as browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, making it accessible on a range of devices and platforms.

Why Would I Need to Monitor Web Changes?

• Business Intelligence: Monitoring your competitors’ websites can give you valuable insights into their pricing strategies, product offerings, and marketing tactics.
• Brand Reputation Management: Monitoring your own website can help you stay on top of any unauthorized changes or negative comments, allowing you to take action quickly to protect your brand reputation.
• E-commerce Monitoring: For online businesses, monitoring websites and online marketplaces such as Amazon can help you stay informed of changes in prices, product availability, and competition.
• Job Opportunities: For job seekers, monitoring websites of potential employers or job portals can help you stay up-to-date on new job openings and opportunities.
• Website Uptime Monitoring: Monitoring a website can also serve as an uptime monitoring tool, allowing you to be informed of any downtime or technical issues that may impact the accessibility of your website.
• Compliance Auditing: Monitoring changes to a website can also be useful for auditing purposes, particularly in regulated industries where websites must adhere to specific standards.

Pros of Wachete:

The free plan is really useful if you just need to monitor some pages casually. The paid plans are really affordable and are loaded up with features. For the price of $9.90 per month, you can already enjoy a lot of its features with 100 pages and a check interval of 10 minutes.

The interface is easy to understand, although to some this might be a negative side of it since it is quite the minimalist style.

Another pro is even on the free plan, you get to keep your data for 12 months.

At the moment, their highest plan stands at $299.90 monthly or $3299.90 annually, which can monitor up to 3000 pages every 5 minutes.

For people who will require more than this, the Wachete team is open for discussions for custom plans.

Cons of Wachete:

Lower plans limitations, but depending on your needs, this won’t be a problem. Plans below $49.90 per month are limited in terms of the number of pages they can monitor and the type of files they can monitor, such as .pdf, .doc, and .xls files.

Proxy is not available for plans below $49.90, so if you are monitoring pages regularly from a single IP address, you could get blocked.

This applies for all plans, but only 12 months of history is available for all plans, no matter you pay $4.90 or $299.90 per month, which may not be sufficient for heavy users with a lot of data to work on.

The Verdict

In conclusion, Wachete is a useful tool for those looking to monitor websites for various purposes. With its wide range of features, including the ability to monitor password-protected pages, receive notifications via multiple platforms, and integrate with third-party partners, Wachete offers a comprehensive solution for website monitoring.

Additionally, its flexible pricing options and availability across multiple platforms make it accessible to a wide range of users, from individuals to small and large businesses.

Wachete would be particularly useful for:

• Online businesses looking to monitor prices and product availability on e-commerce websites and marketplaces such as Amazon.
• Job seekers looking to stay informed of new job openings and opportunities.
• Companies and individuals looking to monitor their own websites or their competitors’ websites for business intelligence purposes.
• Website owners looking to monitor their website’s uptime and ensure their website is accessible to users.
• Regulated industries require auditing and monitoring of their website’s compliance with specific standards.

Overall, Wachete is a solid option for those looking to monitor websites for various purposes.

Visit Wachete

The post Wachete’s Web Monitoring Solution Review appeared first on Hongkiat.

What sets Gainium apart from other platforms is its advanced features for technical traders , including webhooks and API for external integration and a suite of pre-built trading bots that can help traders make profits in any market conditions.

Additionally, Gainium offers backtesting and paper trading options, allowing traders to test their strategies before putting their own money on the line.

With Gainium, traders can connect their accounts on exchanges, including Binance, Binance US, Kucoin, and Bybit. This enables traders to launch bots that buy on one exchange and sell on another, making it easier to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities.

Whether you’re a seasoned trader looking to automate your trading strategy, or a beginner looking to test the waters, Gainium is a platform that’s worth exploring.

Gainium’s Features

Let’s delve deeper into Gainium’s key features so you can have a better idea if it’s the crypto trading platform for you to use or not.

1. Comprehensive Trading Tools

Gainium offers a wide range of tools for both manual and automated trading, making it a one-stop-shop for traders of all levels. With Gainium, traders can manage their portfolios, research and test strategies, deploy advanced trading bots, and analyze trade charts and statistics.

2. Advanced Features for Technical Traders

Gainium provides webhooks for external integration, making it easy for more technical traders to build and implement their custom strategies. Additionally, the platform offers a suite of pre-built trading bots, including Grid Bot, DCA Bot, and HODL Bot, among others.

If you are a seasoned trader, you can fiddle around the settings to match it up with your strategy.

3. Backtesting and Paper Trading

Gainium offers backtesting and paper trading features , allowing traders to test their strategies before putting their own money on the line. This feature provides traders with a low-risk environment to refine and perfect their strategies before going live.

4. Multiple Exchange Integration

Gainium allows traders to connect their accounts from a range of exchanges, including Binance, Kucoin, and Bybit. This enables traders to launch bots that buy on one exchange and sell on another, making it easier to take advantage of arbitrage opportunities.

5. User-Friendly Interface

Gainium features a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for traders to navigate the platform, set up bots, and manage their portfolios. The interface is designed to be intuitive, allowing traders to get started quickly without any prior technical experience.

Since I am already familiar with trading platforms and tools like Gainium, I can confidently say that it is quite easy to navigate. But for people who are new to the field, it might take a bit of time to get used to, especially if you would like to get a bit technical.

A Look into Gainium’s Interface

Like every platform that does it right, Gainium has both Light and Dark Modes. If you don’t have this on your platform and it’s already 2023, I don’t even want to see it.

Anyway, upon logging in on the trading platform, you will be greeted by this dashboard:

At a glance, you will see your portfolio’s value. You can also filter it based on the coin you have. And on the right side, you can see your profit and loss.

A bit further down you will see an overview of all your active trading bots, grid bots, their status, profit, and loss.

Portfolio Page

And below it you will see Bankroll and your latest orders. Bankroll in this case simply means the USD value of all the currency you have in your exchanges.

Moving on to the Portfolio page, all of the crypto tokens you have will be listed and aggregated.

Your portfolio is also categorized based on the ecosystem they live in. For example, if you have BUSD, then it will show up under BNB Chain Ecosystem and so on.

And finally, for the portfolio, you will also see the summary of your balance, the market cap, exchange value distribution, and your top and worst performers in chart form.

Trading Terminal

If you are familiar with trading terminals in other exchange platforms, you won’t find yourself lost on this one since it is pretty standard stuff.

Here you can place orders to either buy or sell, and this is where you can also switch between exchanges like Bybit, Binance, Binance US, and Kucoin. This is where you can also choose which trading pair to play on.

Grid Bots

Next is the grid bots table where all of your active bots are listed. This is also where you can create a new bot for different trading pairs.

Creating a bot is simple, you simply need to click on the New button above and you will be redirected to this page as shown below. Here, you can fiddle around your bot’s settings.

In my case, I want to trade with LTCETH pair, or Litecoin and Ethereum.

Depending on your settings above, you can simulate it first by using the backtesting feature to ensure you will not just suddenly lose money.

Here’s the result of the quick backtesting I did. I didn’t spend much time setting it up, but I can imagine those who are more invested in this will have a field day doing a lot of tests.

Trading Bots

That said, the Trading Bots page is where your active bots are listed. Here you can see your coin pairs, their value, profit, unrealized profit, your daily average, how long the bot has been active for, and the like.

Adding a new trading bot is easy. Just like before, click on the New button on the upper right and you will be redirected to this page:

On the right hand side you can set up your bot with the strategy you like. I took screenshots of all the fields you can fiddle with, from left to right, top to bottom:

Why Use Gainium?

Traders may choose to use a tool like Gainium for several reasons like increased efficiency, improved strategy, testing, easy portfolio management, arbitrage opportunities , and the like.

In my opinion, the standout feature of Gainium is its backtesting and paper trading capabilities. This gives traders the ability to test their strategies in a simulated environment without risking any real money. As a result, traders can make necessary adjustments and fine-tune their strategies to their liking, all in a low-risk environment before executing live trades.

Pros

As I mentioned a couple of times, Gainium’s backtesting and paper trading feature is one of the best and probably the most important tools a trader could have. I can easily see myself using this several hours a day, simulating all possible settings in order to craft the best strategy for my trading bots.

On top of that, at the moment there are no fees involved. Gainium is currently in the Beta testing phase and all fees are waived, so users can enjoy unlimited grid bots, unlimited DCA bots, and complete API access, along with all of its features. In exchange, the Gainium team expects their users to provide valuable feedback so they can improve their platform.

Cons

As far as I can see and understand, at the moment they only support Binance, Binance US, Kucoin, and Bybit. I checked their documentation if there’s any mention of other exchanges but I am not able to find any. But since they are still in the Beta phase and are still actively developing key features, I would expect the list to grow in the future.

In Conclusion

A tool like Gainium offers traders a comprehensive set of tools and features that can help them trade more efficiently, test their strategies, and increase their profits. Whether you’re a seasoned trader or just starting out, Gainium is a platform that’s worth exploring.

The post Gainium – A Fully-featured Crypto Trading Platform (Review) appeared first on Hongkiat.

To help you get started with this powerful tool, we’ve compiled a list of 15 resources that can help you craft better prompts for your next project… or let’s admit it, for when you are bored.

Whether you’re a pro or a beginner, these resources will give you the inspiration and guidance you need to create truly amazing artwork with Midjourney.

Let’s get started!

1. AiTuts Prompt

AiTuts Prompt is a curated database of high-quality Midjourney prompts that offers a wide range of different styles for you to choose from. It’s a great resource for anyone looking to create stunning AI-generated images with Midjourney. The database includes a variety of prompts, such as game art prompts, graphic design prompts, arts and crafts, illustrations, and much more.

You can expect to find prompts that result in Studio Ghibli-style anime, watercolor scenes, paper art, hyper-realistic water photography, app and website mockups, app icons, posters, logos, pixel arts, 3D characters, game items, and much more. This wide range of options ensures that you find a prompt that’s perfect for your project, from any style or medium.

2. Prompt Hero

Prompt Hero is a community-driven platform where you can share and search for the best prompts for Midjourney. It is designed to make it easy for you to find inspiration for your next AI-generated image. You can browse through millions of ideas and select the one that best suits your project.

Prompt Hero also features a ranking system that takes into account the community’s upvotes and popularity. This means that the prompts at the top of the list are the ones that are considered the best by the community. It’s a great resource of inspiration for all user levels.

3. Midjourney Prompts Database

A. E. Alexander’s Midjourney Prompts Database is a comprehensive resource for users of the AI-based art generator, Midjourney. The database is organized into several categories, each of which focuses on a specific type of art style, medium, or subject matter.

The Aesthetic & Style category, for example, includes prompts that result in different types of art styles like art nouveau, anime, cinematic, comic book, concept art and some inspired by leading art websites like ArtStation, DeviantArt and others.

Another category is Art Medium, which features prompts that are based on different types of mediums like oil painting, watercolor, digital art, and more. The Lighting category provides users with prompts that focus on different types of lighting, such as natural light, artificial light, and so on.

Additionally, the database also includes categories for Traditional Artist, TV and Movie, Video Game, and Character prompts, providing users with a wide range of options to choose from.

4. MJ Prompt Tool

MJ Prompt Tool is an advanced tool with GUI features that make it easy for you to input all the necessary information to generate an image. Simply type in your main idea and then use the various options to fine-tune your prompt.

The options available in the tool include style, lighting, camera type or style, artists, colors, materials, size, focus, quality and even an option to stylize or upload an inspirational image.

This means that you no longer have to write out all the options in your prompt, including their weight, as the tool does it for you. This not only saves time but also ensures that the prompt is accurate and complete, resulting in a more detailed and polished image.

MJ Prompt Tool is a user-friendly and efficient tool that makes creating Midjourney prompts a breeze. Its GUI features, a wide range of options, and the ability to upload inspirational images allow users to generate their desired images with ease.

This tool is a must-have for anyone looking to take their Midjourney image generation to the next level.

5. Promptmania

Promptmania is a Midjourney prompt builder that allows you to easily create prompts for the AI-based art generator, Midjourney. It’s similar to MJ Prompt Tool but with different ways of building a prompt.

With Promptmania, you can add an image inspiration, write your main idea, and add another prompt part, then choose a base image you want to use, mimic an artist’s style, select parameters, and add other details – all while showing you the expected result you will most likely generate.

One of the standout features of Promptmania is that it provides examples for each option you choose. If you have a specific art style that you would like to achieve but you’re not exactly sure how to explain it, or a specific camera scene you want, you no longer need to just imagine and write that out because they have examples for each.

For example, glamour shot, film grain, or art style by Claude Monet or Lisa Frank. This makes the prompt generator an easy and valuable tool to use, as you can see the expected result before generating the image.

6. Midjourney Styles and Keywords Reference

While not exactly a Midjourney prompt builder or a tutorial created by Willwulfken, this is more of an encyclopedia for Midjourney prompts. In here you will learn everything you need to know to go from zero to pro in generating AI images.

You can learn about different art styles for specific themes, artists, lighting, materials and their properties, geometry, formatting, and several parameters that will boost your “skills” in writing your prompts.

7. Arthub AI

Arthub.ai is a website that crowdsources Midjourney prompts. The website’s unique feature is that all prompts and their generated AI art are displayed for you to check, copy and also upvote or downvote. This allows you to explore the different types of prompts and images that are possible with Midjourney, as well as get inspiration for your own projects.

Another great feature of Arthub.ai is that it includes the parameters used by the poster, as well as the seed number used for the image generation and settings like scale, steps, and dimensions.

This allows you to see the exact settings used to create a certain image, and you can try to replicate it or make adjustments to create your own unique image.

Caution: the website also features NSFW artwork.

8. Jrnylist

Jrnylist is a prompt builder for Midjourney that makes it easy for you to create the perfect prompt for your next project. With its user-friendly interface, you can write your main idea and click on the options to build your prompt with ease. You don’t have to be an expert to use it, anyone can do it.

Jrnylist offers a wide range of options to build your prompt. You can choose which art medium you want to make it look like from the list, add nature and landscape themes, choose what kind of portrait style, and even add modifiers, choose if you want to make icons, logos, illustrations, and the like. This allows you to create an image that is tailored to your specific needs and preferences.

9. Midjourney Prompt Helper

Midjourney Prompt Helper is a prompt builder that is as simple and straightforward as it gets. With its barebones interface, you can easily write your prompt, and click on the options available like Art Style, or categories under Animals, Lighting, Landscape, Artists, or what’s popular. Then you can adjust the dimensions, add modifiers and the resulting prompt will be created.

The simplicity of Midjourney Prompt Helper makes it easy for anyone to use, whether you’re a beginner or an experienced user. The options available allow you to create a prompt that is tailored to your specific needs and preferences.

You can choose the art style, categories like animals, lighting, landscape and artists, and even what’s popular. And with the ability to adjust the dimensions and add modifiers, you can be sure that your resulting image will be exactly what you want.

10. MJPromptBuilder

MjPromptBuilder by Anorihon.com is a straightforward prompt builder tool. Even though it may not have a good design, it can still get the job done. The tool is not as in-depth as other prompt builders, as you will need to know the specific parameters, art styles, and modifiers, etc.

However, where it excels is in its ability to provide several image references that will help build your prompt. This means that you can use images as inspiration to guide your prompt, making it easier to achieve the desired result. If you’re someone who likes to have a visual reference to help guide your prompts, MjPromptBuilder is a great option for you.

11. Prompt Styles and Weights

Prompt Styles and Weight is an in-depth encyclopedic resource for everything you need to know on how to engineer the best prompt that will work for you. It explains details step by step, like understanding how prompt weights can change the overall generated image, negative weights, and the like.

It is still a work in progress but keep an eye out on this page because it would supplement your prompt-crafting knowledge.

12. Prompt Engineering Guide

Note: Created for DALL-E 2 but also works for Midjourney.

Prompt Engineering Guide is a comprehensive guide that goes over all the general modifiers used in prompts for AI image generation tools like Midjourney. The guide provides further information, examples in real-life, and examples of how DALL E 2, another AI image generation tool, interprets the prompts.

It covers art modifiers like art styles, artists, and photorealistic modifiers like image quality, lighting, situational, and illustration modifier styles. The guide is 34 pages long, so you have plenty of information to learn from.

Even though the guide is made for DALL E 2, it’s a practical guide that you can use in crafting your prompts for Midjourney. The guide’s detail on the art modifiers, photorealistic modifiers, and illustration modifier styles give you a deep understanding of how to create the perfect prompt for your desired image.

13. Midjourney Artist Influence Reference Sheets

This reference sheet for Midjourney is one of the most extensive collections I’ve seen, which I am sure will help you build your prompt in no time. It has several sheets focusing on different categories, like references for Artists, Landscapes, Creatures, Anime, Cartoons, Paintings, Characters, and others. It provides example prompts and how to achieve the corresponding images.

14. Midjourney Prompt Inspiration

This Midjourney prompt tool by T. L. Ford is an extensive prompt builder that offers a wide range of options to help you create the perfect prompt for your next image generation.

The tool has literally hundreds of examples for modifiers like animals, adjectives, anime, art movement, artists, camera angles and styles, render, seasons, shapes, weather, time, texture, technique, and the like. Each modifier or description is accompanied by an image, so you can see the likely outcome of your image generation.

With this tool, you’ll have everything you need to create a prompt that is tailored to your specific needs and preferences. The tool’s wide range of options and accompanying images make it easy for you to understand the potential outcome of your prompt.

Bonus: List of Midjourney Prompts

While not a resource for prompts, this blog post entitled ” List of Midjourney Prompts “, authored by Lim How Wei from Followchain, provides an in-depth look at how to craft the perfect prompt for the AI-based art generator, Midjourney.

The post starts off by providing general tips on how to create an effective prompt, including the types of keywords that work best with Midjourney. It also includes a list of keywords that have been proven to be successful when used in Midjourney prompts, such as Anthropomorphic, Volumetric, Sharp Focus, Octane Render, Atompunk, and others that you’ll probably hear for the first time.

In addition to the tips and keywords, the blog post also includes examples of prompts and their resulting images. These examples serve as a great inspiration for those looking to create their own prompts and images using Midjourney providing a wealth of information on how to get the most out of this powerful tool.

To End

In conclusion, there are many Midjourney prompt builders and resources available that can help you take your AI-generated image creation to the next level. Each of the resources discussed in this blog post offers unique features and advantages.

Whether you’re looking for a simple and straightforward prompt builder, a tool that offers a wide range of options and accompanying images, or a guide that provides detailed information on creating the perfect prompt, there’s a resource out there for you. With the help of these tools, you’ll be able to create stunning AI-generated images with ease and take your creativity to new heights.

Have fun!

The post 15 Sites for Midjourney Prompt Builders and Guides appeared first on Hongkiat.

These programs, known as AI photo enhancers or AI image upscalers, are designed to fix common problems such as blurred photos, unwanted noise, poor lighting, shaky camera, and low-resolution images due to them being taken eons ago…all without any loss of quality.

So, let us explore these 10 AI photo enhancers below!

1. HitPaw Photo Enhancer

HitPaw Photo Enhancer is an AI-based photo enhancement software that is available for both Windows and Mac computers. It utilizes artificial intelligence-derived techniques to improve the quality and resolution of digital images. The software is able to fix blurriness and remove noise from photos without any loss of quality.

Features:

• Auto enhancement of photos for when you do not want to mess with the settings.
• AI upscaling feature to turn your low-resolution photo into a poster-sized one without losing quality.
• Unblur photos from the early 90s.
• Colorize photos in under 30 seconds – I tried it, and it works like magic.

Features (Android app):

The Android app has additional features:

• AI face enhancer that retouches photos to provide a flawless feel and remove blemishes, wrinkles, etc., in just a click.
• Convert photos into anime/cartoon style.
• Colorize old photos.
• Upscale and De-noise photos.

Price:

One of the great features of HitPaw Photo Enhancer is that it is free to try. If you are satisfied with the results, you can purchase the software for a promotional price of $17.99.

Additionally, it is also available for Android devices on Google Play. With HitPaw Photo Enhancer, you can easily enhance your photos and make them look their best with just a few clicks.

Enhance Images with HitPaw Photo Enhancer

2. Styldod

Stydod’s AI Image Enhancement tool operates entirely online, thus eliminating the need for additional software. While the majority of image enhancement tools primarily cater to portraits, Stydod’s solution specializes in refining images of interior spaces, specifically those related to real estate.

This tool is designed to swiftly enhance the quality of your images. It sharpens the details, reduces noise, fine-tunes colors, and performs a comprehensive set of adjustments to upscale your images, all with remarkable ease and efficiency.

The process of using the tool is straightforward: choose an image from your local storage, upload it to the Stydod platform, and let the AI-driven image enhancer work its magic.

The capabilities of this online tool are multifaceted. It can convert the resolution of an image from low to high, remove visual noise from images, sharpen blurry elements, and conduct both color correction and calibration. This ensures your images are not only aesthetically pleasing, but also of the highest possible quality.

Enhance Images with Styldod

3. Fotor’s Photo Enhancer

Fotor’s Photo Enhancer is a web-based AI-based photo enhancer that offers a wide range of features to improve the quality of your photos. It uses powerful AI enhancement algorithms to automatically detect and correct lighting and color, sharpen images, upscale images, and repair blurred photos.

Features:

Some of the key features and usage of this photo enhancer include:

• AI-based image enhancement tools to make blurry images clear instantly.
• Enhancer for e-commerce, specifically for improving product photo quality for online platforms, social media, and websites.
• AI image enhancer online for photography and portrait to improve image quality and make photos stand out.
• AI photo quality enhancer online for real estate to make properties more attractive to potential buyers.
• Pro-level photo enhancement toolset including advanced tools for enhancing photos like a pro.

Fotor’s toolkit can be used for a variety of purposes, including e-commerce, photography, and real estate. It offers a pro-level set of tools that are easy to use, making it a great option for both professionals and amateurs.

Price:

It is free to try for 3 days, then it’s $8.99/month.

Enhance Images with Fotor’s Photo Enhancer

4. PicWish Image Enhancer

PicWish Photo Enhancer is an advanced online tool that utilizes AI technology to enhance your photos. It effectively transforms regular images into visually appealing ones by addressing issues like blurriness and image noise. Additionally, PicWish offers a variety of features aimed at improving image quality without sacrificing detail.

Features:

• Effective at enhancing blurry, pixelated, and low-resolution photos
• Automated photo improvement that doesn’t require expert editing skills
• Quickly upgrades images to HD quality
• Ideal for e-commerce businesses looking to improve product image quality
• Skilled at enhancing portrait images and restoring vintage photos
• Compatible with bulk enhancement on Windows, Android, and iOS devices

Price:

One of the most appealing aspects of PicWish Photo Enhancer is its accessible pricing model. It offers five free uses per day after logging in. The Pro version starts at $0.008 per credit.

Enhance Images with PicWish

5. Zyro’s Image Upscaler

With Zyro’s AI Image Upscaler, you can easily enhance the resolution and quality of your images. This web-based tool utilizes an AI-powered smart upscaler,, allowing you to upscale and enlarge your images with minimal effort and without any loss of quality.

Features:

The key features of this tool include:

• AI-based image upscaling to increase resolution and improve image quality.
• Support for JPG and PNG image formats.
• Free to use, with the ability to integrate with other tools using the Zyro API.
• Also serves as a platform for entrepreneurs to build websites and online stores.

Price:

Zyro’s Image Upscaler is free to use.

Enhance Images with Zyro’s Image Upscaler

6. Smart Upscaler by Icons8

Icons8 has an AI-powered image enhancer that can upscale your low-res images upto 8 times. Without having to login, you can simply drag-and-drop or upload the image on the website to upscale. The enhanced images are stored on the site, plus, there’s an API available for for batch image enhancement or to add the app to your products.

Features:

Some of the best features of the Smart Upscaler tool include:

• Enhance the quality of images up to 8 times.
• All enhanced imges are saved on the site where you can review history or redownload them.
• No login or sign up required to use the tool.
• API available for adding the tool to your own products.
• The site upholds user privacy and doesn’t use the pictures for machine learning.

Price:

• Trial, 3 free upscales.
• Prepaid, $0.2/ image.
• Limited subscription (monthly), $9 (upto 100 images/ month).
• Limited subscription (yearly), $90 (upto 100 images/ month).

Enhance Images with Smart Upscaler

7. DeepImage AI

DeepImage AI photo enhancer is a powerful tool designed to help you improve the quality of your images. With its ability to upscale images, remove artifacts, and increase overall image quality, it offers a wide range of features that can help you make your photos look their best.

Features:

Some of the key features of DeepImage AI photo enhancer include:

• Upscale images: DeepImage AI photo enhancer can increase the resolution of images, making them sharper and clearer.
• Remove artifacts: The tool can remove unwanted artifacts from images, such as noise, improving overall image quality.
• Light and color correction: DeepImage AI photo enhancer can automatically detect and correct lighting and color issues in images.
• Background removal: The tool can remove backgrounds from images, making it easy to isolate the subject of the photo.
• API integration: The tool can be integrated into the most popular eCommerce sites and software via DeepAPI or DeepImage’s API.

Price:

• Trial, 5 credits – Free.
• Bronze, 100 credits – $7.50/month.
• Silver, 300 credits – $20.750/month.
• Gold, 500 credits – $32.5/month.

Enhance Images with DeepImage AI

8. VanceAI

VanceAI is a powerful AI-based photo enhancement tool that offers a wide range of features to improve the quality of your images. It can do AI upscaling, sharpening, and enhancing, which can help boost productivity in photo processing for any use, like graphic design and batch-processing for industries such as photography, printing, e-commerce, and more.

Features:

Some of the key features of VanceAI include:

• AI-based features for enhancing images including anime portrait, background removal, old photo repair and colorization, image enhancement, sharpening, colorization of black and white photos, image denoising, portrait retouching, and JPEG artifact removal.
• Available on Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.
• Works on a credit system with options for different numbers of credits at different price points.
• Offers a 7-day money-back guarantee.

Price:

VanceAI is available as a web-based tool, Windows, MacOS, Android, and iOS, which makes it easy to use and accessible from any device. It works on a credit system, where 1 image processed is equal to 1 credit.

The cheapest plan is 100 credits for $4.95 and goes up to 1000 credits for only $17.95. While it doesn’t have a free trial, it offers a 7-day money-back guarantee.

With a full suite of photo processing tools from VanceAI, you can get awesome images for websites, blogs, banners, or products right from the start.

Enhance Images with VanceAI

9. AVC AI

AVC AI is an image enhancement tool that uses deep learning algorithms to improve and restore photo quality automatically and effortlessly. It can upscale image resolution, denoise, sharpen, retouch faces, colorize, and more.

Features:

Some of the features of AVC AI include:

• Uses deep learning algorithms to improve and restore photo quality automatically and effortlessly.
• Super Resolution technology for image resolution upscaling and quality boosting with just a simple click.
• Quick facial recognition feature that helps with enhancing facial details in images.
• Available as a web-based tool, on Google Play, Windows, and MacOS.
• Additional features such as background removal, colorizing old photos, and image calibration.
• Upscales all kinds of images that can be used for larger screens, print, web, and other purposes.
• 24 hours automatic image deletion after uploading.

Price:

AVC AI works on a credit-based system, with plans starting from 100 credits for $9.95 per month up to 500 credits for $39.95 per month.

Free credits available by following them on social media and leaving reviews on Trustpilot and Alternativeto.

Enhance Images with AVC AI

10. LetsEnhance

LetsEnhance is an online image enhancement service that uses AI technology to improve the quality of images. It can be used to increase the resolution of images, remove noise and artifacts, and enhance image details.

The service is available as a web-based tool and also offers an API for developers to integrate it into their own applications. LetsEnhance.io can be used to improve images for a variety of purposes, such as e-commerce, photography, and graphic design. It can upscale images 2x, 4x or even 8x, and it is also possible to use it for batch processing, which means that it can process multiple images at once.

With LetsEnhance.io, you can easily enhance your images and give them a professional look.

Features:

Summary of its features include:

• AI image upscaler.
• Pixelation and blur fix.
• Color and lighting correction.
• JPEG artifacts removal.
• Batch editing.
• One-click presets.
• Small photo conversion to HD, 4k, 8k, or higher.
• Upscale images up to 500 megapixels with 300+ DPI.

Price:

You get up to 10 free credits to try the product, but if you would like to subscribe, 100 credits will cost you $9/month if paid annually.

Enhance Images with LetsEnhance

Bonus: Cutout.pro

Cutout Pro’s AI Image Enlarger & Enhancer is a powerful online tool that can help you improve the quality of your images. It uses advanced AI technology to super-enlarge images by up to 200%, sharpen blurred images, denoise grainy images, enhance portraits with its AI face recognition, improve underexposed night scenes and repair and colorize old photos.

It is great for photographers, illustrators, real estate people, e-commerce entrepreneurs, and for image prints.

Features:

Some of the key features of Cutout Pro’s AI Image Enlarger & Enhancer include:

• Super enlargement, upscaling images by up to 200%.
• Sharpening of blurred images.
• Denoising of grainy images.
• AI face recognition for portrait enhancement.
• Improving underexposed night scenes.
• Repairing and colorizing old photos.
• Available as a web-based tool.
• Suitable for various industries such as e-commerce, photography, and graphic design.

Price:

The service is available for users as a web-based tool, and it also offers a free account with 5 credits, and an option to invite friends to earn 5 more credits.

The subscription plan goes from 40 credits for $5 monthly up to 1200 credits for $69. Users can also opt for pay-as-you-go options starting with 3 credits for $2.99.

Enhance Images with Cutout.pro

Bonus: Adobe Express

Adobe Express is a free online photo editing app by Adobe that offers a range of features to enhance and edit your photos. One of the standout features of the app is its photo enhancer, which uses advanced AI technology to automatically improve the quality of your images. With just a few taps, you can adjust the lighting, color, and sharpness of your photos to make them look their best.

Features:

It is quite literally an express form of Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. While it does not upscale or enhances image resolution, it does a bunch of stuff that you might need when you are on the go. For example:

• Like in Photoshop, you can add shapes, text, and other design assets.
• Use different templates to get your design started.
• Adjust backgrounds with their thousands of free and premium collections.
• Use Adobe’s stock photos.
• And many more…

Price:

Adobe Express is free.

Enhance Images with Adobe Express

Bonus. ACVLabs Photo Enhancer AI

AVCLabs Photo Enhancer AI is a powerful tool that allows users to enhance their photos with advanced AI technology. With the ability to upscale resolution, remove noise and grain, refine faces, remove backgrounds, and calibrate colors, this tool can help you take your photos to the next level.

Features:

Some key features of AVCLabs Photo Enhancer AI include:

• AI-embedded photo upscaling to improve resolution.
• Noise and grain removal to fix blurry photos.
• AI face refinement for portraits and selfies.
• AI Photo Colorizer to colorize black and white photos.
• AI Color Calibration to fix color issues.
• AI Background Removal to create transparent backgrounds.
• Available for Windows and macOS.

Price:

They have a free trial, but once it is done, you can subscribe monthly for $19.95 for the monthly plan and $79.95 for the yearly plan, but they do have a lifetime plan priced at $159.90.

Enhance Images with ACVLabs

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are many AI image-enhancing tools available on the market today. Whether you’re a professional photographer, an e-commerce entrepreneur, or simply someone who wants to improve the quality of their personal photos, there is a tool out there that can help you achieve your goals.

The 10 tools we’ve highlighted in this blog post are among the best in the business and offer a wide range of features to suit different needs and budgets. From upscaling resolution and removing noise and grain to retouching portraits and colorizing black and white photos, these tools can help you take your images to the next level.

Whether you’re looking to improve your online store’s product photos or create high-quality prints of your personal memories, one of these AI image-enhancing tools is sure to meet your needs.

The post 10 Best AI Image Enhancing Tools appeared first on Hongkiat.